GACC earns road sweep of Boone Central/Newman Grove

The Guardian Angels Central Catholic Volleyball team earned a road sweep of Boone Central/Newman Grove Thursday night, topping the Cardinals 3-0.

Things were close throughout the first part of set one before the Bluejays took over midway through the set. The set was tied at 13 before GACC rattled off 8 straight points to put it out of reach, winning 25-17.

Things were close in the early going of set two before the Bluejays pulled away for a 25-20 win.

It was the same story in set three as Boone Central/Newman Grove hung around for a while before GACC put them away with a 25-19 victory.

Freshman Sophia Hass had 13 kills to lead GACC and also posted 8 digs. "Yeah she really played well. She bounced back really well. She struggled a little bit on Tuesday night. And we're putting a lot on Sophia's shoulders. She's a primary passer. She's our top outside hitter and she's a freshman. And sometimes we forget that she's a freshman cause I have really high expectations for her and what she's able to accomplish, and she has high expectations for herself too. So I was really happy with her tonight, she made some adjustments from Tuesday night, and really did some positive things for us," GACC Head Coach Kate Hagemann said.

Hanna Knobbe piled up 35 digs for the Bluejays while Meghan Brunsing had 7 digs and 10 set assists. Reece Snodgrass registered 11 set assists.

Hagemann on the win. "I was really happy with the girls. Tuesday we were so high error and it just killed our momentum, and kind of killed our confidence a little bit. And it was kind of funny the first three or four points tonight in that first set we were high error, we just made some mistakes. So you're starting to think oh jeez here we go again, but tonight the girls did a really good job of kind of flipping that switch, and not allowing one error lead to another error. And that's what we talk about is it's okay to make an error if you're being aggressive, but just to limit those errors and not let them snowball on us. And I thought we did a really good job of that tonight. We limited their runs to just a few points instead of giving up those big runs that have killed us in the past."

GACC is now 4-3 on the year and travels to Wayne (7-2) Tuesday night. "Wayne's a really good team. They're going to be one of the top teams in the conference, I think they'll be pushing for the conference championship this year and we did some really good things against them when we played them last week. But if we can improve, and now we know a little bit what to expect with them, there's no reason that it shouldn't be a great game. And I know our girls will be really confident going into them cause I think they felt that when we played them the first time that we could of done even better than what we did," Hagemann said.

The Blue Devils knocked off the Bluejays 2-1 at the Northeast Nebraska Volleyball Classic last Thursday night.

Wayne topped North Bend Central 2-0 and David City Aquinas 2-1 at the North Bend Central Triangular on Saturday.

Hagemann says she likes rematch games, saying the Wayne game will be a good gauge of what the Bluejays have done the last couple weeks and if they've improved.

I think GACC can definitely go up to Wayne and come away with a win.

The Blue Devils have played good Volleyball throughout the season, but I feel Wayne is beatable, especially given the fact the Bluejays played them so close the first time around.

I feel both teams are better now than they were then, but I think GACC has an edge in that they've had a little more time off.

I look for the Bluejays to be fresh and energized come Tuesday night.

The Blue Devils will be tough, especially on their home floor, there's no doubt about it.

You can bet the crowd will really be into it as well.

It should be a great match between two outstanding programs, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what GACC can do.

I think this match has all the makings of going five sets.

The Bluejays have to start strong, and sustain a high level of play throughout the entire match, just like they did for quite a bit of the Boone Central/Newman Grove match.

If Haas has another strong game then I think GACC has all the makings of taking down Wayne.

The Bluejays have to force the Blue Devils into mistakes, something they did a very good job of against the Cardinals.