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Seniors lead Cavaliers to sweep over Webster

Aberdeen Roncalli’s Maddie Huber serves the ball during Thursday night’s match against Webster at the Roncalli High School gym. Photo by John Davis taken 9/19/2024

Aberdeen Roncalli finished off a straight-sets sweep over Webster, riding the strong play of its three seniors to a 25-17, 25-19, 25-11 Northeast Conference volleyball victory at Roncalli Gym Thursday night.

While the match goes down as a sweep, it was not the Cavaliers’ cleanest outing of the season.

“Our very first timeout, I pulled our stat sheets and told them, error after error,” said Roncalli coach Leesa Ware. “We had a lot of unforced errors, a lot of offensive errors. I thought our defense tonight was strong, but offensively we have some work to do.”

Webster kept things close in the early going of the first two sets, holding a 7-4 lead in the first and a 12-9 lead in the second. Both of those advantages were predicated in large part on Roncalli errors.

“(We) got out of focus just a little bit,” Ware said. “That’s when we need to become as one team and get back in focus.”

Still, despite the miscues, the Cavaliers never lost control of the match. Backed by a strong performance from seniors McKenna O’Keefe and Ava Hanson at the net, and a solid all-around effort from Maddie Huber, Roncalli shook off those errors and made several strong plays to stay in control.

Aberdeen Roncalli’s McKenna O’Keefe, far right, hits the ball as Webster’s Karli Sannes, left and Abby Vander Linden, center, defend the net during Thursday night’s match at the Roncalli High School gym. Photo by John Davis taken 9/19/2024

“After the first set, we really talked about limiting our unforced errors, our hitting errors, our serving errors, something that we can control,” said Huber. “Just keeping all of our things in bounds.”

Huber spearheaded that effort at the service line, finishing officially with six of the team’s 10 aces.

“At the beginning of my runs, I just aim for the ball to go in bounds,” Huber said. “That’s your first instinct, just get it over the net. Then after you get a few going, then you can try to aim and try to serve seams. That’s what I like to do, just serve in between people and make them talk. Most of the time, it ends in an ace.”

Aberdeen Roncalli’s Rylee Voeller, right, tries to hit the ball past Webster’s Mallory Steiner, far left and Abby Cander Linden, center, during Thursday night’s match at the Roncalli High School gym. Looking on at back left for Roncalli is Ava Hanson (11). Photo by John Davis taken 9/19/2024

Huber also dished out 33 assists on the night, 13 to Hanson and 11 more to O’Keefe. Rylie Voeller and Ava Danielson kept things alive in the back row with 17 and 12 digs, respectively.

Those efforts led to a third set that was all Roncalli, as the Cavaliers bolted to a 17-5 lead and never let up.

“Our three seniors played outstanding tonight,” Ware said. “You could see the leadership on the court between Ava, McKenna and Maddie.”

Roncalli, back in the win column after back-to-back road losses, heads across town to face Aberdeen Christian at the Christian School Gym on Monday.

Serving: Aberdeen Roncalli 72-76 10 aces (Maddie Huber 20-20 6 aces, McKenna O’Keefe 10-11 2 aces).

Hitting: Aberdeen Roncalli 110-136 42 kills (Ava Hanson 18-27 13 kills, Rylee Voeller 23-32 11 kills, McKenna O’Keefe 28-31 8 kills).

Setting: Aberdeen Roncalli (Huber 33 assists).

Digs: Aberdeen Roncalli 73 (Voeller 17, Ava Danielson 12).

Blocks: Aberdeen Roncalli (Hanson 2).

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