The Cardinals volleyball team dropped two road games and hosted a tournament over the past week.
Luverne fell to Marshall 3-0 Tuesday, Sept. 5, and to Westbrook Walnut Grove 3-1 Thursday, Sept. 7. The Cardinals finished 4-4 at the Luverne Tournament Saturday, Sept. 9.
Luverne will travel to Adrian Thursday, Sept. 14, and head to Jackson Saturday, Sept. 16, for an Invitational.
Marshall 3, Luverne 0
The Luverne volleyball team traveled to Marshall Tuesday. Sept. 5, and lost to the Tigers 3-0.
In the first game, Marshall prevailed 25-7.
“Marshall always comes out strong,” head coach Sarah DeBeer said.
“Our serving wasn’t that bad our first game, but we just couldn’t find the court consistently on the attack.”
The second game ended Marshall 25, Luverne 9.
“In the second game we stuck with them in the beginning, then we allowed too long of serve runs, allowing Marshall to take the game,” DeBeer said
In Game 3 Marshall beat Luverne 25-6.
Looking at the third game, Debeer said, “It started out all right, but Marshall’s persistence at the serve line became too much for us to get our offense going.”
Senior Morgan Ahrendt led Luverne, serving nine of nine with one ace, had six digs and three kills.
Junior Amira Cowell was five for five serving, had two block assists and 10 set assists.
Hannah Sneller, a junior, had five digs for the Cardinals.
Senior Tori Serie posted two block assists and four kills.
Senior Kira John had two block assists, and senior Kiesli Smith had two solo blocks.
Westbrook Walnut Grove 3, Luverne 1
The Cardinals traveled to Westbrook Thursday, Sept. 7, losing the match 3-1.
“The Westbrook game was a great game to watch and play,” DeBeer said.
“I witnessed some of the greatest high school rallies during this match.”
Luverne lost the first game 25-14, came back and won the second 25-18, only to lose the next two close games 25-19 and 25-19.
“We had tons of amazing hits, digs, blocks and some amazing athletic players going after each and every ball,” Beers said.
“Unfortunately we came up short in the games.”
Cowell posted 15 of 17 serves with one ace, had 18 set assists and nine kills.
Ahrendt was 13 of 13 serving for Luverne.
Smidt had 12 digs, and Reisdorfer had 14 digs and nine kills.
Sneller had 15 total set assists in the games.
Serie sent 11 kills over the net for Luverne.
John had two solo blocks and three assists, and Smith had two solo blocks and two assists.
Cardinal Tournament
Luverne hosted the Cardinal volleyball tournament Saturday, Sept. 9, with Adrian, Edgerton, Hills-Beaver Creek and Windom participating.
The Cardinals did not keep stats for the games and used the tournament to try different lines combinations for future games.
The Cardinals first played Adrian and gave up two games to the Dragons 25-19 and 25-13.
In the second game Luverne lost to Windom 25-12 and 25-19 going into a break for the day.
LHS faced H-BC in the third game and beat the Patriots 25-21 and 25-15.
In their final game the Cardinals beat Edgerton in two games 25-19 and 25-13.
“Our morning started out very slow, but we ended with some good wins,” DeBeer said.
“We are looking forward to playing a better match against Adrian next Thursday night.”
