Guardian Angels Central Catholic beats Arlington

It took five sets, but the Guardian Angels Central Catholic Bluejays topped Arlington 3-2 at home Thursday night.

GACC won set one 25-20 and set two 25-22 before the Eagles bounced back to take sets three and four 25-23 and 25-22. The Bluejays won set five 15-10.

Maddie Knobbe posted 17 kills and 7 blocks. Breanne Kreikemeier had 14 kills and 16 digs while Kate Steuter totaled 14 kills and 15 digs. Morgan Bracht led the way in digs with 23. Kate Knobbe notched 18 while Sarah Arduser chipped in 13. Kali Stratman dished out 16 set assists while Sara Wordekemper recorded 15.

Head Coach Kate Hagemann says both teams played great in the match that was back and forth. "It was exciting. I don't know, I kind of have a hard time putting into words cause we were just all over the place. I thought we played great for you know 5, 10 points, and then we'd let up for a few points. And you know I thought really overall we probably played one of our better matches. And give credit to Arlington, they played great. And I think they definitely had a better scouting report coming in than I had for our girls. And I was just lucky our girls competed and battled. But you know they did a great job of blocking. I think that's pry the best we've been blocked all year. And they did a great job of digging and just keeping balls alive. And for a while there we were not doing a good job of staying in system. When they would throw some stuff over the net. And we would allow it to affect us instead of just staying calm, getting another good pass, going forward, and going right back at them. So I'm proud of girls. You know I said after the match every day we just want to get a little better, and games like this are definitely going to make us better."

There's no doubt GACC was pushed in this match, but the Bluejays rose to the occasion and got the job done.

GACC (9-1) is at Homer (8-10) on Monday.

The Knights defeated Bancroft-Rosalie 3-2 on Tuesday of last week before going 1-2 at the Wisner-Pilger Classic on Saturday.

Homer lost 2-0 to Wayne and Humphrey St. Francis, but downed Laurel-Concord-Coleridge 2-0.

The Bluejays should be able to sweep the Knights, I don't see any reason why they shouldn't.

GACC needs a sweep so they can save their energy for Bishop Neumann and Hartington Cedar Catholic on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.

This is going to be a tough week for the Bluejays. GACC has to step up their game and play even better than they have to this point in the season.

All three matches are on the road, and it can be tough to play away from home, but I look for the Bluejays to step up and compete well.

It's going to be tough for GACC to win all three matches, but it is definitely possible. The Bluejays just have to play at a high level, and execute in all facets of the game.

It will be interesting to see how GACC fares this week. I look for the Bluejays to go 3-0 or 2-1.