Stefanie Schmidt had the march of her life, but it wasn’t quite enough for Carson’s volleyball team to upset perennial powerhouse Bishop Manogue.
Schmidt had a career-high 16 kills with just three errors in the 18-25, 25-11, 16-25 and 25-22 loss to the Miners Monday night at Morse Burley Gym.
Carson, Damonte and Douglas are all 9-6 entering today’s final matches.
Extending Manogue to four sets gives Carson plenty of momentum heading into tonight’s regular-season finale at home against Douglas.
“Stefanie had a great night,” Carson coach Robert Maw said. “She is starting to see the block. Abby Pradere had a phenomenal night. Playing center back, she got up a lot of balls and kept rallies alive.”
“That is the highest (amount of kills) I’ve had,” Schmidt said. “Natalie (Anderson) did a great job of feeding me. I like it when she feeds the ball. I can definitely tell if I’m going to have a good night. I was able to keep the adrenalin going.”
Carson started the night passing poorly, and the Miners rolled to an easy win in the opening set, scoring 15 of the set’s first 21 points. Mary Redl-Harge had seven kills to lead the Miners, and Schmidt had 3.5 to lead the Senators.
Schmidt ramped up her hitting in the second set, sparking the Senators to a quick 6-0 lead with two kills. Setter Natalie Anderson also had a couple of service aces.
Manogue closed to 7-4, and then Schmidt took over. The Senators went on a 9-0 run to open up a 16-4 lead. Schmidt started the surge when she stuff-blocked Harge, and then she had three kills on CHS’s next five points to make it 13-4. After Pradere served up an ace, Carissa Willey got her first kill of the match and Schmidt scored again.
Manogue closed to 19-10 on two kills by Allison Gunderson, but Carson scored six of the next seven points to win the set and even the match. Anderson served up two aces, Shea DeJoseph and Ku’ulei Haupu each had a kill, and Schmidt had a stuff block.
Gunderson and Harge got untracked for Manogue in the third set, enabling the Miners to open a 10-5 lead. Harge had three kills in the early spurt. Carson closed to 10-7 on two kills by Anderson, but two service aces by Juliana Bryan and a block by Emma Pence gave the Miners a 14-7 lead, and Carson never recovered.
Schmidt had four more kills and DeJoseph had three in the set.
In the final set, Manogue had runs of 7-0 and 5-0 to grab a 13-7 lead. Carson closed to 20-17 on kills by Dajarrah Navarro and Schmidt. A net violation and a service ace by Emma Hansen made it 22-17 before two aces by Pradere and a kill by Schmidt closed it to 22-21 before the Miners closed it out with a 3-1 run.
Schmidt said the team played much better than the first match at Manogue.
“Our passing was bad the last time,” Schmidt said. “We had more energy this time even though it didn’t work out (for a win).”
“I’m frustrated because our lefts, all four of them, are getting to the right spot defensively,” Maw said. “We have to play better defense.”