St. Paul takes down Gonzales in straight sets

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SHINER — Shiner St. Paul hosted the Gonzales Lady Apaches Tuesday night as they took a three-set win (25-18, 25-8, 25-20). St. Paul took advantage of many mistakes the Lady Apaches committed and withstood a late push by Gonzales in the third set to get the win.

Lady Cardinals’ head coach Kayla Natho cited their serving as the biggest factor in their win over Gonzales.

“I thought we did a great job of serving,” she said. “We were where we were supposed to be, making [Gonzales play] out of system a lot and then capitalizing on that.”

“You make an error, we ace them, they make an error, things started to snow ball for them and they just weren’t able to get themselves out of that.”

The Lady Apaches had a 9-5 lead in the first set before the Lady Cardinals ran off a 10-0 run to take a leave they’d keep for the rest of the set. Though the Lady Apaches kept the game close, down only 20-18, Shiner St. Paul would rattle off five straight points to win the set 25-18.

The second set was a disaster for the Lady Apaches as Shiner St. Paul started it off with a 7-0 run. Gonzales scored two points in a row just once in the set as the Lady Cardinals used their serving to rattle the visitors.

“We started off good coming off our win Saturday,” Gonzales’ head coach Bernice Voigt said. “We worked hard [Monday] in practice and game two we fell apart. We stopped communicating and in game three we decided we wanted to play again. A little late, but we tried.”

After losing the second set 25-8, the Lady Apaches came out firing, scoring the first four of six points go up 4-2. Both teams kept it close as Gonzales’ Morgan Mason’s kill gave them the 7-6 lead. However, the Lady Cards would go on another 7-0 run scoring points from kills, hits and aces to go up 13-7. Shiner St. Paul would have their biggest lead late in the game, going up 19-10 before the Lady Apaches fought back and a run of their own, getting within one with the score at 19-18.

“We got frustrated,” Natho explained. “They got a couple of points in a row and we started to do too much.”

“I took a timeout, I talked to them, I said ‘calm down we’re fine’,” Natho continued. “I told them ‘it’s unacceptable, that’s not how we play volleyball here.’ I never want one of their servers to serve the ball more than three times in a row. That’s too much for me.”

Shiner St. Paul’s Parker Clay scored the next three points on a kill, block and a tip before Grace Irvin’s kill gave the Lady Cardinals the 23-18 lead. The Lady Cardinals would end up winning the set 25-20.

Voigt explained that her Lady Apaches struggle when the communication stops as well as other factors on the court.

“When we stop talking, when we stop moving our feet, we fall apart,” Voigt said. “If we can talk, move our feet, get to the ball, stay in the game and not lose our concentration we do OK. Once we lose concentration, we kind of falter and it takes us a long time to come back.”

Despite the loss, Voigt praised Gretchen Singleton for her doing a “good job coming in helping” with the setting.

As for the Lady Cardinals, Natho noted that Delynn Pesek led the team in kills and Mallory Grabarkievtz did a “great job of running the floor.”

“[Grabarkievtz] works hard,” Natho said, “she wants to win, she wants to be the best she can be, so I thought she did a great job tonight.”

Tonight, Gonzales will host Bandera for a 6 p.m. game. Meanwhile, Shiner St. Paul took on their rivals last night in Hallettsville, though results for the game against Sacred Heart was unavailable before press time.

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