PIERCE – The 2018 Mid State Conference volleyball tournament began Monday evening from two locations.
Three matches were played in Pierce with two more held at Norfolk Catholic High School.
From Pierce, #8 GACC defeated #9 Boone Central/Newman Grove in four sets (23-25, 25-12, 25-19, 25-10) while #4 Norfolk Catholic swept #5 Pierce (25-23, 25-23, 25-18).
#1 Wayne battled GACC in the night cap and won in straight sets (25-16, 25-19, 25-17). The Blue Devils improve to 21-8 on the season and will next face Norfolk Catholic Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. from Pierce. WHS swept Norfolk Catholic in Norfolk on September 18.
Lauren Pick recorded a double-double with 13 kills and 20 digs to go along with two blocks (one solo) for WHS at the net. Ashton Boyer followed with seven kills and 14 digs, six each from Emily Armstrong (14 digs) and Frankie Klausen, five kills by Katelyn Grone (solo block), four kills and 15 assists from Allyson Avery (block-assist) and a kill by Sydney Redden. Kiara Krusemark tallied a team-high 16 set assists as Hailey Backer picked up 10 digs.
Krusemark and Grone also tacked on a service ace each.
Three different Bluejays picked up eight kills each from Evelyn Wooldrik, Sophia Hass and Brooklyn Bailey.
On the other half of the bracket from Norfolk Catholic High School: #3 Battle Creek swept #6 Crofton (25-21, 25-14, 25-15 ) and #2 Hartington Cedar Catholic swept #7 O’Neill (25-18, 26-24, 25-14 ). The Trojans are now 23-4 on the season and will face Battle Creek Tuesday evening following the Wayne match around 7:30 p.m. Cedar Catholic has defeated Battle Creek twice this season, the first on August 30 (2-0) and again on September 15 (2-0).
Jada Cattau posted a double-double with 14 kills and 13 digs to pace HCC where she is now seven kills away from reaching the 1,000 kill mark in her career. Abby Hochstein followed with nine kills and nine digs as Maddie Wieseler added eight kills and 21 set assists. Aiden Wortmann tacked on 14 assists as Megan Heimes picked up 22 digs.
As a team, HCC recorded 15.5 blocks with Brianna Miller, Wieseler and Hochstein accounting for four each. Service aces came from Wieseler and Miller both with two and one each by Wortmann, Cattau and Hochstein.
Loser’s bracket games will be played at Norfolk Catholic High School featuring #5 Pierce vs. #8 GACC at 6 p.m. and #6 Crofton vs. #7 O’Neill at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday evening.
