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St. Cecilia’s Addie Kirkegaard spikes the ball past Scotus Central Catholic’s Tanley Miller (1) and Hailey Steffensmeier Tuesday in Hastings.
St. Cecilia’s Chloe Valentine (back) and Erin Sheehy go for a pass during their match against Columbus Scotus Tuesday in Hastings.
St. Cecilia’s Jill Parr sets the ball during their match against Columbus Scotus Tuesday in Hastings.
St. Cecilia’s Addie Kirkegaard spikes the ball past Scotus Central Catholic’s Tanley Miller (1) and Hailey Steffensmeier Tuesday in Hastings.
Alan VanCura can’t seem to get far enough into retirement before he’s reeled back to the sideline.
The hall of fame coach, who can still be seen in the crowd at St. Cecilia home games, once again led the Hawkettes in a volleyball match Tuesday night.
VanCura replaced first-year head coach and his former assistant Kelan Schumacher for the evening. Schumacher is dealing with an illness.
St. Cecilia’s Chloe Valentine (back) and Erin Sheehy go for a pass during their match against Columbus Scotus Tuesday in Hastings.
“We were kind of running out of options,” VanCura said. “If I didn’t say I’d do it, we might not have been able to play the match.”
Since it was senior night, VanCura felt an obligation to those kids.
“You’ve got to play it for them,” he said.
Senior Katharine Hamburger was happy to play, especially under VanCura, whom she’d played the previous two season for.
“I thought it was awesome. I love VC,” she said. “When I heard coach Schu was going to be gone, I had a feeling VC was going to be the coach. When I heard he was, I was super excited.
Along with VanCura, Hamburger’s older sister, Clare, was also on the bench coaching.
“I was really hoping (VanCura) was going to coach another year, but coach Schumacher came in and he’s a great coach,” Hamburger said. “But it was really special that (VanCura) could be here and that my sister could be on the bench to help.”
Hamburger tied junior Addie Kirkegaard for the match-high in kills with 14 in a sweep of Centennial Conference rival Columbus Scotus.
The Hawkettes (23-8) downed the Shamrocks 25-16, 25-19, 25-22 inside Chapman Gymnasium.
STC cruised through the first two sets, but let Scotus (11-12) crawl back in game three — almost to the point of forcing a fourth set.
St. Cecilia lost to the Shamrocks in straight sets in the conference tournament 10 days prior.
Hamburger said it was almost an opposite contest Tuesday night.
“Our energy (was different),” she said. “Everything about that (previous) game, we had too many errors. We were really just tired and didn’t play with energy and we really had to bring that today and we did.”
While VanCura said St. Cecilia and Scotus didn’t play much clean volleyball, the home team committed less errors.
St. Cecilia’s Jill Parr sets the ball during their match against Columbus Scotus Tuesday in Hastings.
“The first time they played, it was just a bunch of errors, and we happened to make more than they did,” he said. “Tonight, I think, maybe they made a few more than we did. It’s a tribute to our kids to maybe under somewhat adverse conditions, to be able to play well and pull this one out.”
Scotus opened with eight errors in set one, had 10 in set two, and finished with 14 in set three.
Serving paced St. Cecilia through the first set, and Kirkegaard tallied six of her kills there.
VanCura complimented the growth he’s seen from the Hawkettes’ junior middle.
“She’s physically gotten so much stronger, and when she really goes hard and swings on the ball, she’s tough to stop,” he said. “When she gets the ball in the right place, she’s tough to stop.”
Madalyn Heil served a pair of aces and Kenzie Worthing recorded the first of her four aces in the set one. STC had nine ace serves for the match.
“We served the ball pretty well, I thought,” VanCura said. “Scotus is a good team. They’re fundamentally sound.”
St. Cecilia dug itself a hole out of the gate in set two, trailing 7-1 on five errors. But the Hawkettes recovered to take the lead with an 8-1 run after VanCura called timeout.
Three consecutive errors by Scotus after it had tied the second set at 11 led to a Shamrock timeout and gave the Hawkettes the lead for good.
STC nearly let a nine-point advantage slip in the third game on a furious Scotus comeback. The Shamrocks feasted on Hawkette errors. Six of St. Cecilia’s nine errors in the third set came after it held its largest lead.
VanCura finally rose from his perch when the lead thinned to 23-22. The Hawkettes earned the final two points of the match with a Hamburger kill and a Scotus miscue.
“I was just proud of our effort tonight,” VanCura said.
Chloe Walker led the Shamrocks off the bench with nine kills and Tanley Miller scored eight. Hailey Steffensmeier registered three solo blocks.
The Hawkettes will play in the C1-9 subdistrict, when the postseason begins next Monday. Also in the pool are Adams Central, Gibbon, Kearney Catholic, and Minden — all of which STC has faced this year.
“We know we’re going to have to bring it every single night,” said Hamburger, who believes the Hawkettes can make it back to the state tournament. “They’re all good teams. We’ll work hard the rest of the week and just go in fighting.”
Tanley Miller 8-1-0, Grace Mustard 2-0-0, Kamryn Chohon 0-1-0, Anna Ehlers 0-0-1, Berling Kluever 3-0-0, Hailey Steffensmeier 1-0-3, Kate Maguire 1-0-0, Chloe Walker 9-0-0. Totals: 24-2-4.
Katharine Hamburger 14-1-0, Jill Parr 0-1-0, Hailey Reifert 0-4-0, Chloe Valentine 0-1-0, Madalyn Heil 2-2-1, Addie Kirkegaard 14-0-0, Ryann Sabatka 2-0-0. Totals: 32-9-1.
Assists — CS, Audrey Sprunk 11, Chohon 10, Kluever 1, Makenna Svehla 1. STC, Parr 30, Heil 1.
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