The Cowgirls started off the match with an ace, courtesy of Abby Johnson, that led to a 6 point run in the Cowgirls’ favor.  From that point on, the Cowgirls kept a healthy lead and took the first set 25-16.

The second set started out a back-and-forth battle with neither team pulling ahead. The Cowgirls pulled away at 13-13 on a 4 point run courtesy of Kayley Ceroll’s serving. “Our serving has been an issue thus far this season,” said Breckenridge Head Coach Margaret Wilson. “We’ve missed serves at inopportune moments and it has hurt us. Tonight we served very well despite the heat and finished the match with 100% serving as a team! I’m hopefully we will continue serving this well.”  The Cowgirls kept the lead for the remainder of the second set and finished it 25-22.

A 7 point deficit was how the Cowgirls started the third set; a kill from Camryn Kaehler gave the Cowgirls a little momentum to get back in the game. The Cowgirls lagged behind for most of the set until Riley Finkral got up to serve. Finkral started her 5 point run with an ace which sparked the Cowgirls into action. Jude Held assisted in the run with 2 kills to catch the Cowgirls back up 11-11. A miss-block and a wild hit sent the Cowgirls behind 11-14. Held brought the Cowgirls out of that one with another kill and the game tied back up 14-14. With three errors on the Cowgirls, they found themselves again behind 14-17. A Warrior hitting error put Johnson on the line to serve and the Cowgirls tied the score up again, 17-17. An overpass kill by Riley Lorenz gave the Cowgirls their first lead of the set, 18-17. “We just couldn’t seem to pull ahead in that third set. We’d get down by some and tie it back up and get down and tie it back up; makes for a tiring set,” noted Coach Wilson  Two kill blocks by Lorenz put the Cowgirls in a great position to take the set, but the Warriors weren’t finished. With the score tied at 20-20 it was anyone’s game. Lorenz earned her team point 21 but the Warriors earned a kill in return. The score tied at 21-21, the Warriors went on a 3 point run putting the score at 21-24. The Cowgirls caught a break with an out-of-bounds hit, 22-24. Held scored two kills to tie it back up at 24-24 and earned herself another kill, to put the Cowgirls ahead 25-24. The Cowgirls took the set and match with an out-of-bounds hit by the Warriors. “Jude really did an excellent job of finding the open spots there at the end of that set. She had 3 big kills to end the set and win us the match. She played a nice game tonight,” added Coach Wilson. 

Breckenridge leaders were Abby Johnson (18 digs, 5 ace serves, 4 kills), Carcie Materi (8 digs, 6 set assists), Kaitlin Arnhalt (16 digs, 7 set assists), Jude Held (9 kills, 3 block assists), Camryn Kaehler (7 kills, 12 digs), Riley Finkral (1 ace serve, 3 kills, 19 digs), Madelyn Larson (12 digs), Victoria Undem (5 kills, 2 block assists), Kayley Ceroll (9 set assists, 7 digs) and Riley Lorenz (2 kills, 2 block assists, 1 solo block).

“Overall, this is a great section win for us,” concluded Coach Wilson.  “I’m happy to see us competing with our section teams. We need to work on our setting though. We struggled running our offense tonight; our hitters didn’t quite get the sets we needed to attack the ball like we should have and Wheaton did a nice job of picking up everything we attacked.”

The Cowgirls head to Barnesville on Thursday, Sept. 19th for the conference game against the Trojans.