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New Bremen's Maria Kramer goes up for a spike during Thursday's MAC volleyball matchup with St. Henry at the Nest.
NEW BREMEN - The New Bremen-St. Henry volleyball game was tight from start to finish.
But New Bremen had a little more fight at the end.
The teams played the entire five sets Thursday, and afterward Bremen coach Diana Kramer credited her entire roster for stepping up to earn a thrilling victory.
"I've never had a more complete game than I've ever seen tonight," said New Bremen coach Diana Kramer after a 25-21, 22-25, 25-22, 20-25, 15-7 win. "So many people stepped up in different moments, and it's remarkable to see."
The Cardinals improved to 9-1 overall and 3-0 in Midwest Athletic Conference play. St. Henry fell to 8-4 and 1-2.
"Obviously, they are one of our biggest rivals," St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck said. "You want to play the best. You want to beat the best. This went their way tonight. Hopefully we see them again in tournament time."
St. Henry's Kylie Bollenbacher (right) blocks the spike of New Bremen's Maeve Eilerman.
Bremen led the whole way in set one after opening with a 4-0 run, which was punctuated by a MariAna Muether kill and an ace by Maria Kramer. A block by Ashtyn Eilerman gave the Cardinals their then-largest lead at 8-3, and they kept their distance most of the way until St. Henry made a final push. The Redskins were within 22-20, but Maeve Eilerman followed with a scoring spike and then Jane Rindler scored an ace to help the Cardinals close.
It was a role reversal in set two. St. Henry opened up a 6-2 lead. Bremen clawed back to tie the score at 7-apiece. From there, the set was in firm control for the Redskins, who had Bremen's offense out of system while generating quality offense of their own. Like St. Henry did in the first set, Bremen made a late push - cutting the deficit to 22-20 before St. Henry closed via a kill by Renee Wendel.
St. Henry was on pace to take a 2-1 set advantage as it built a 14-9 lead in the third. That quickly changed when Bremen went on a 6-1 run with a Ashtyn Eilerman kill tying the set at 15-all. A block by Maeve Eilerman gave the lead to Bremen for good on the next volley. Ashtyn Eilerman followed with another kill to pad the lead. Bremen never let St. Henry tie the score from that point, and the Cardinals scored the final three points to secure the win.
The Redskins recovered for a 25-20 victory in set four. The Cardinals rallied to within two points late in the set after having trailed by eight, but they ran out of steam. St. Henry scored the final three points to force a fifth set.
New Bremen's Delaney Heitkamp goes up for a spike during Thursday's MAC volleyball match with St. Henry at the Nest.
Once there, the Redskins rolled out to a 4-1 lead before the wheels started falling off. Bremen tied the score at 4-all. The score was knotted again at 5-even, but Bremen scored the next seven points. Muether broke the tie with a spike, St. Henry got a bad break on a call, and the points continued to stack as Bremen closed for its ninth victory in 10 games.
"It's all about being aggressive on first contact," Rosenbeck said. "They are a very aggressive serving team. Sometimes that got us out of system and made us predictable and made their block better. It just makes it hard for us hitting when they know where we're going with the ball."
Maria Kramer had a team-high 15 kills for Bremen, adding 22 digs and three aces. Maeve Eilerman and Muether each had 13 kills, Ashtyn Eilerman had 12 kills and 15 digs, and Charlotte Nelson tallied 36 assists.
