Shiner St. Paul stays undefeated in district

HALLETTSVILLE — Miracle at the Meadowlands, Reggie Miller’s eight points in nine seconds, Auburn returning the missed field goal for a touchdown against Alabama… all of these shocking events are indeed once-in-a-lifetime experiences for their respective fans.

Now imagine if that happened again the following year. Too crazy right? Lightning isn’t supposed to strike twice.

For Shiner St. Paul, it did.

Tuesday night down two sets to none, the hosts, the Hallettsville Sacred Heart Indianettes, had a 24-23 lead over the Lady Cardinals. One more point and the rivals in blue were going to win the match, sweeping St. Paul and ending their undefeated district streak dating back since last year’s district season. But a block by Parker Clay, a ball hit out by Sacred Heart outside hitter Madison Etzler and a combined block by Clay and Kenzie Vargo gave the Lady Cardinals new life as they won the second set 26-24.

Sound familiar?

October 14, 2014, the Lady Cardinals were down two sets to none to their rivals, head coach Kayla Natho asked her squad that night “if they wanted to be district champions and they all raised their hands and they all said yes.”

“I said ‘if you guys win this set, you’re going to do it, you’re going to be district champions.’”

St. Paul won the set, then won the next two sets to win the district title.

Down two sets to none yet again Tuesday, the Lady Cardinals took the third set, then the fourth and finally the fifth to once again mount an epic comeback against their biggest rivals just as they did a year ago.

“It’s a once in a lifetime experience. I think for some of these girls it’s twice in a lifetime experience,” Natho said after the game. “I told them that last year, they will never forget this moment being down, being in a corner, backs against a corner and coming back and fighting. That’s what they did. It wasn’t pretty, but they came back and they fought, they never quit and I’m proud of them for that.”

In the books, it’ll read Shiner St. Paul (4-0) beating Hallettsville Sacred Heart (3-1) in five sets, (23-25, 24-26, 26-24, 25-23, 15-12) and although the scores may indicate a tight contest, it doesn’t fully tell the story.

Early on the Indianettes were aggressive up front, with kills coming in from Claire Pavliska and Jami Shimek, both seniors. Middle blocker McKenzie Bludau also registered multiple blocks to frustrate the Lady Cardinals attackers.

“They’re big, they’re athletic,” Natho said of Sacred Heart’s front line. “I told them it was going to happen, we need to cover our teammates every single time and we have to have our teammates backs so they can go up and swing and not be scared that they’re going to get blocked.”

Down 22-15, the Lady Cardinals scored eight of the next 10 points off tips and other ways of attacking Sacred Heart before the ladies in blue won the set with a cheeky tip by Bludau.

The second set was a bit more back and forth as both teams traded leads a handful of times before tying up the match at 23 apiece. Sacred Heart’s Shimek swung at a ball and got the kill in between Lady Cardinals blockers to get the next point, but a missed serve by Pavliska tied it up again at 24. Sacred Heart scored the next two points on a dropped ball and a questionable four-hit violation to take the set 26-24.

 “We made a lot of unforced errors early,” Natho said. “We let that setter dump on us way too much. Defensive discipline is definitely something we need to get better at.”

St. Paul also had times where instead of swinging and going for a kill, the hitters would push the ball, a much safer yet passive way of playing.

“That was just us being scared, scared to make a mistake,” Natho claimed. “They need to have more confidence, they need to play more so that they’re able to be more confident even in the non-perfect situations, turning that bad stuff and making it into something positive for us.”

After that third set win, the confidence Natho spoke of began to show as attacks from the Lady Cardinals’ side, including hits from Trinity Kusak, Allie Kutac, Delynn Pesek and Ashlyn Patek began to hit, giving points to the away side instead of getting blocked up front.

Shiner St. Paul’s biggest threat came from the outside hitters, a facet in the game that Natho was pleased with.

“I think in games past our middle, Allie Kutac, has been leading in kills and I told the girls, ‘if you were to scout us right now, what would you guys see?’ and every one agreed that Allie would be the number one person we would look at,” she explained. “I think that just made the other girls wok a little bit harder.”

Their success on the outside led to Pesek leading the team with 19 kills, followed by Patek with 16.

Even so, Kutac still got her attacks in from all sides of the court as she came away with 12 kills Tuesday night.

“We couldn’t do it without her, she does everything all the way around,” Natho praised. “I’m proud of [Kutac] for that, it’s hard work. It’s definitely hard work, especially playing middle and to play all the way around, it takes a special kid and Allie’s been willing to work to be that person.”

In the fifth set, Sacred Heart had their biggest lead of the match, up 9-2, six points away from ending their nightmare night. But as Shiner St. Paul has done in the past, they rallied, going on an 8-1 run.

“We don’t practice that, I promise,” Natho joked as the Lady Cardinals put themselves in another hole to then climb out yet again. “I don’t know why we like to do that, just make it difficult on ourselves. We need to do a better job definitely of stopping the other team’s runs, finding a way to win even if it’s an unconventional way, winning those long rallies, we need to get better at that definitely.”

Sacred Heart fell apart at the end, with four of St. Paul’s final five points scored off of errors, completing the Lady Cardinals’ comeback.

Halfway through the district season, the Lady Cards are undefeated and improving.

“I think we’re clicking on all cylinders,” Natho said, “we need to clean up a few little things and once we do that I think we’re golden.”

Last night the Lady Cardinals hosted the previously winless Victoria Faith Academy, but results to the game were unavailable before press time.