Cardinals take third in Invitational with four wins

Coon Rapids won four of six matches and finished third of seven teams while hosting the Coon Rapids Invitational.

The day opened well for the Cardinals as they used runs of seven, four and five points to take a 21-7 lead over Hastings in the day's opening set en route to a 25-11, 25-17 win.

Paige Jones had her best setting game of the season with 20 of 36 set attempts, a .556 efficiency, resulting in kills. Courtney Pasiowitz had five kills, without an error, in seven attacks to go with four service aces while Lindsey Bratland put away four of her five attacks and Ashley Engen had a team-high six kills.

The second match of the day featured a matchup with Northwest Suburban Conference-leading Centennial and the Cougars wasted little time, scoring the first five points of the match before cruising to a 25-10, 25-20 win.

The Cardinals began to find their game in second set of the match, taking the lead on two separate occassions, but a 7-1 run by Centennial put the Cougars ahead, 12-8, and they would not relinquish the lead.

Pasiowitz, who had three aces, and Megan Hayes led the way for Coon Rapids with four kills apiece.

The third match of the day came against another NWSC foe in Robbinsdale Armstrong. Despite being outhit by the Falcons, the Cardinals showed that the time spent at Friday's practice on service and serve reception was beneficial. Coon Rapids had 14 aces to just four for Armstrong and an .892 serve reception compared to just .674 for the Falcons.

Lindsay Bratland had a season-high six kills in the match while Engen, Jones and Chloe Jacobson each had three aces. The Cardinals also had five blocks in the match with Hannah Fitzer assisting on four of them.

Coon Rapids ran its record to 3-1 on the day with a 25-17, 25-16 over Providence, behind a balanced hitting attack which saw five players record at least three kills. Pasiowitz, who had three kills, added five services aces to account for a team-high eights points while Jones, who had 11 assists, led the way with a season-best six kills.

After dropping a 25-12 decision in the opening set against Stillwater, a set in which they never led, the Cardinals and Ponies battled neck and neck through much of the of the second set. However, Stillwater snapped a 17-17 tie by running off seven consecutive points before finishing off a 25-18 win.

Olivia Jung's four kills and .273 hitting percentage led Coon Rapids.

The Cardinals finished out the day with a 25-14, 25-23 win over Rogers to capture third place. Coon Rapids scored the first seven points of the first set and were not caught en route to the 11-point win, but the second set saw eight tied scores and six lead changes A block by Bratland and Engen finally snapped a 19-19 tied in the final set and the Cardinals hung onto the lead until the end.

The four wins gave Coon Rapids a 5-4 record on the week and and raises the team's mark to 8-11 on the season. The Cardinals' final two home matches of the season take place this week as they host Champlin Park, Tuesday, and Anoka, Thursday, in a pair of 7 p.m. games at the Coon Rapids Fieldhouse.