Junior Indigo Pruitt, left, and senior Harper Andrews jump at the net to try and block a Baldwin point. Both players had one block Monday night.
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Junior Indigo Pruitt, left, and senior Harper Andrews jump at the net to try and block a Baldwin point. Both players had one block Monday night.
As she watched her serve graze the top of the net, senior Ellie Suber felt her heart sink just a little bit.
But that feeling quickly turned to joy when Suber saw the ball hit the ground for an ace.
The play secured the Cardinals’ victory over their archrival Baldwin in the fifth set of an overall back-and-forth affair Monday night.
Suber said there was no better way to end the match.
“I was really happy to see it hit the ground, and I think the whole gym was,” she said. “It’s always fun to end a match that intense with an ace and take the pressure off the team.”
When Suber stepped up to the service line, head coach Brooke Hopper had no doubt her senior was going to deliver for the team.
“Ellie went back there and I was like, ‘This is it,’” Hopper said. “When she gets challenged, she really locks in and you don’t want to challenge her because she’s going to win it.”
The team’s victory over the Bulldogs was so exciting, Hopper couldn’t help but joyfully leap in the air, even if her knees paid the price for it.
“I probably jumped higher than I have in about 12-15 years,” Hopper said. “I have really bad knees, so I try not to jump, but these girls bring it out of me and there’s just no way that I can’t get excited for them.”
The win over Baldwin Monday was the Cardinals’ third win against Baldwin this season and their second win over the Bulldogs in just three days as the team defeated Baldwin in the championship round of the Wellsville Invitational Tournament Saturday. The scores of that match were 25-18, 31-33 and 25-21.
Suber said the tournament win over the weekend helped the team be ready to defend their home court against the Bulldogs Monday.
“Learning who our hot hand will be in the moment really helped over the course of the tournament, and tonight was the same thing,” Suber said. “We just needed to keep finding our hot hands and not let our serve-receive get too down and just be able to side out quickly.”
The recent success against the Bulldogs and playing at home made the Cardinals start the match with a lot of energy, but maybe a little too much energy.
“We were probably trying to play a little too perfect in the first set, and that led to a lot of our errors that we made,” Suber said.
The Cardinals never led in the first set and lost it 25-17.
The second set started much the same as Baldwin jumped out to an 8-4 lead after a long rally between the teams.
But the Cardinals kept grinding to steal points from the Bulldogs.
Senior Rayah Foltz made a tremendous play when she hit the ball from the left side of the court all the way to the right side to secure a point and cut Baldwin’s lead in half.
Junior Indigo Pruitt denied a Bulldog kill attempt with a block to give the Cardinals a spark on defense late in the set.
However, no points were bigger down the stretch of the second set than junior Addy Hemphill’s.
With the Bulldogs up 22-18, Hemphill made four kills in five points to tie things up at 23. Hemphill had 24 kills with a 44% kill ratio on the night.
Hemphill said her big night was fueled by wanting to take down the team’s rival.
“Honestly, I was just fired up. I really wanted us to get this one, and I saw my opportunities and I took them,” she said.
The Cardinals took the second set 25-23 to tie the match up at one set apiece.
Hemphill said the team stuck together in the second set to make the comeback.
“I think we started playing for each other instead of for ourselves, and we kept picking each other up instead of dwelling on mistakes,” Hemphill said. “It really helped us keep the aggressiveness and momentum going.”
Each team fought for momentum to start the third set, but Baldwin eventually took control as they scored six straight points to go up 15-9 midway through the set.
The Cardinals hung around though and cut the Bulldogs’ lead to one, but a crucial error by the Cardinals gave the Bulldogs enough momentum to close out the set 25-22.
Heading into a massive fourth set, Hopper said she didn’t say much to the team in between sets as she wanted her players to work together to figure something out.
“I’ve always worked towards having a player-led program, and this year I’m so proud of these girls, not only for the work that they do on the court, but for the way that they do lead each other,” Hopper said. “We were really struggling there for a minute to find an option that would work, and I think they really just believe in each other and they want to work for each other.”
The Cardinals came out with some new energy in the fourth set as they jumped out to a 10-5 lead after a Foltz kill. Foltz had 16 kills on the night.
Senior Harper Andrews added two big points to give the Cardinals a seven-point advantage at 17-10.
Andrews said her big points in the set were a result of her being locked in.
“When I get a little bit mad, I tend to swing a lot,” Andrews said. “That helped a lot.”
Andrews added eight kills and a block of her own against the Bulldogs.
Foltz closed out the fourth set with three of the Cardinals’ final five points to give the team a 25-19 win.
Andrews said the win was huge for the team’s momentum going into the final set.
“Putting those together also put Baldwin down a little bit,” she said. “So that helped us build more momentum to find those spots because they were in their heads as well.”
In the first-to-15 final set, the Cardinals got out to a five-point lead, but the Bulldogs were not going to go down without a fight.
Baldwin cut the Cardinals’ lead to three at 13-10, which forced Hopper to call a timeout. Hopper said the timeout was more to ice Baldwin’s server, but she also reminded the team of what they needed to do.
“It’s really just reminding them of that ‘this ball’ mentality,” Hopper said. “Yeah, we need two points, but it’s got to be one ball at a time.”
Andrews made a kill to give the Cardinals 14, and then Suber sent the crowd home happy with her ace, giving the Cardinals a 15-12 win.
Suber said the hard fought win over a good Baldwin team was nothing short of incredible.
“It’s amazing. I love playing this game, and it’s always super competitive here,” Suber said. “Just being able to have it in our home gym made it that much more sweet.”
Now 19-8 on the season, the Cardinals travel to Leavenworth Monday.
Watch the Kaw Valley State post-game show to hear more from Suber, Hemphill, Andrews and Hopper about the exciting win over the Bulldogs.
Reach reporter Jack Denebeim at [email protected].
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