Lady Cardinals drop first non-tournament loss

ALTAIR — The Shiner St. Paul Lady Cardinals dropped their first non-tournament loss Tuesday night as they traveled to Altair to take on the Rice Consolidated Lady Raiders, losing the match (24-26, 25-21, 25-21, 25-15).

“I think for us it was our inexperience,” head coach Kayla Natho said after the game. “I have some younger kids, it’s their first year on varsity. The majority of my girls don’t play club, they don’t play volleyball all year round so they’re not around it. I think the more we play together the more we kind of figure out the game, the better we’re going to be. Yes, I’m disappointed that we won the first set and we lost the next three, but for us it’s not a total loss. Lessons were learned tonight.”

No lead was safe in the in the first three sets. The Lady Raiders and Lady Cardinals traded kills throughout the game, though it was Rice Consolidated who adapted and took over later in the game.

In the first set, players such as Alyssa Kutac, were able to fool the Lady Raiders through tips and pushes instead of straight-away kills.

Tied at 21, St. Paul’s Parker Clay scored off a block and two kills to give the Lady Cardinals match point. Rice Consolidated answered back, scoring three straight by a bad serve and two assisted blocks by Macee Krpec and Alexus Grounds to tie the game at 24. Clay then scored off another tip and Alexis Cappleman ended the set on an ace to win the first set 26-24.

“Parker [Clay] did a great job,” Natho said, “she’s definitely one of our front-row players that we’re looking for, that Mallory [Grabarkievtz] is looking for and serve receive. She needs to play the game more so things are little more natural for her, but she’s a smart kid and she works super hard. Every time she’s involve with a play that’s usually a good thing for us.”

After that first set, the Lady Raiders adjusted and less tips hit the floor, forcing Shiner St. Paul to do try other ways of scoring points.

“That first set, [Rice Consolidated was] letting tips fall,” Natho explained, “they weren’t hustling after every ball. In the second, third and fourth set, they didn’t let anything fall anymore. They made a switch, they made a change. We did not.”

Though close, the Lady Cardinals proceeded to lose the next two sets before getting completely blown out in the fourth set, losing by 10.

When asked on what else the team needed to clean up, Natho mentioned the girls were going to “serve receive until our arms come off” at practice.

“We’re going to work on coverage, some back-row attacks,” she continued. “My biggest thing is out-of-system balls, so get an attack on every ball, not just on the perfect ones. We got a lot to work on.”

Shiner St. Paul played a game yesterday at Hill Country Christian, though results were unavailable before press time. The Lady Cardinals are currently in a two-day tournament at New Braunfels Christian Academy before playing Flatonia at home on Aug. 23.