Luverne senior Tera Boomgaarden receives a serve during Thursday’s homecoming volleyball match against Jackson County Central in Luverne. The Cardinals lost matches to state-ranked JCC and Russell-Tyler-Ruthton on the court.By John RittenhouseTwo state-ranked volleyball teams knocked the Luverne Cardinals below the .500 mark for the season.Jackson County Central, the No. 1 team in Class 2A, topped the Cardinals in a four-game match played in Luverne Thursday. Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, the 10th-ranked team in Class 1A, swept LHS in a three-game match played in Tyler Tuesday.Luverne, 7-9-1 overall, plays in Windom tonight at Martin County West Monday before hosting Brandon Valley Tuesday.R-T-R 3, Luverne 0The Knights defended their home court well when they entertained the Cardinals in Tyler Tuesday.R-T-R rolled to 25-13 and 25-16 wins in the first two games of the match before pulling out a 25-23 win in the finale.Although Cardinal coach Lori Jacobs was happy with the way her team served the ball against R-T-R, she did notice some vulnerable areas in Luverne’s game."We need to work on our serve receive, passing, court coverage and blocking. Our serving (28 of 53) was great," she said.Maggie Kuhlman, who was six of seven at the line with six points, provided one of the highlights of the match for LHS when she served a six-point run in Game 3 that turned a 22-14 deficit into a two-point (22-20) difference.Callen Bosshart was 12 of 12 serving with six points and one ace. Cassie Pap charted five kills, while Stephanie Morgan led the way with five blocks. Brittney Williams charted 13 set assists.JCC 3, Luverne 1The Cardinals drew a tough assignment for their 2003 homecoming match Thursday night.JCC, one of the state’s top teams in Class 2A, stood across the net from the Cardinals during a festive night at Luverne Elementary School.The Cardinals managed to win one game against the Huskies, but JCC left little doubt why it is a highly-ranked team at the state level by winning the Southwest Conference tilt in four games.The Huskies scored the first five points in Game 1 and led 9-1 before Luverne countered with a 5-3 surge capped by an ace serve by Tera Boomgaarden to trail 12-6.The difference remained at six points (14-8) after Bosshart registered a kill for the hosts, but JCC put together an 11-2 run after the Bosshart spike to lock up a 25-10 win.JCC raced to a 13-2 lead in Game 2 and coasted to a 25-9 victory for a 2-0 cushion.Luverne did trim the difference to 10 points (13-3) after a kill by Boomgaarden, but that was as close as the hosts would get to JCC before falling by 16 points.The Cardinals sported a series of two-point leads in the third game before JCC rallied to take a 12-9 advantage.A pair of service points by Luverne’s Kuhlman tied the game at 12, and the score was deadlocked at 19 when Luverne went on a 6-0 run to secure a 25-19 win.The run featured four service points by Williams, and one kill and one ace block by Stephanie Morgan.JCC’s regulars returned to the floor to restore order to the match in Game 4.The Huskies scored the first three points of the test only to have Luverne trim the difference to one (4-3) after Morgan delivered a kill.JCC then went on a 7-0 run to open an 11-3 lead, but the Cards countered with a 4-1 surge capped by a kill from Bosshart to trail 12-7.The Huskies took control of the game at that point with a 12-3 run that gave them a 25-10 victory.Morgan led LHS with seven kills and four blocks in the match, while Williams set the pace with 11 set assists and 11 service points. Chelsea Park served one ace for the Cards.
