ALEX PURDY
Daily Globe
WORTHINGTON - Volleyball is similar to many other sports. It takes two key elements to win. Scoring, and as much as possible, not allowing the other team to score. Thursday night, the Worthington Trojans girls volleyball team did just that, as they swept the Redwood Valley Cardinals 3-0 in Worthington.
Set scores were 25-18, 25-17 and 25-12.
In front of a roaring pep band and student cheering section, the Trojans jumped to a very large and very early lead in the first game. The Trojans capitalized on every Cardinal mistake, which were few and far between in their own right.
The Cardinals never gave up, and kept chipping away at Worthington’s lead. Eventually, however, the Trojans’ defense prevailed.
“It was our best blocking game of the year,” Worthington head coach Jessica Hogan said. “And we hope that we can continue that down the stretch.”
The second game started much like the first, with Worthington jumping out to a quick 5-1 lead. The Cardinals clawed themselves back to only a two-point deficit at 11-9.
Worthington completed its sweep with a dominant third game. It started again with a quick lead, with the Trojans up by a score of 8-1, and eventually the lead increased to 21-8.
Redwood Valley kept clawing. Late in the game, the Cardinals had a number of short rallies to bring the margin within nine points, but the Trojans ended the game before the Cardinals could gain too much momentum.
For Worthington, Brooke Henning led with 13 kills, followed by Allie Bruns with six, and Becca Linder with five. Betsy Thompson led the Trojans in serving, going 18-for-19 with 13 points and three aces. Following Thompson was Paige Kinley, who was 16 of 17 from the line with 11 points, and Linder, who finished a perfect 11-11.
Linder also led the Trojans in blocks with five, followed closely by Henning with three. Paige Gravenhof led Worthington in both digs and set assists, finishing with 14 and 20, respectively. Also aiding Worthington in digs were Thompson and Abbie Landgaard, each with 11. Henning totaled 10.
“It was great to see a good, hard week’s worth of practice shine through on the court. A lot of things we have been working on in practice came through, and the girls took that to heart and really applied that to a game situation. We are very excited to get our first conference victory,” Hogan stated.
Redwood Valley is now 0-3 in the conference. Worthington rises to 5-6 overall, and 1-1 in the conference. The Trojans take on Luverne Thursday.
