St. Peter volleyball bouncing back nicely after rough start

The Saints picked up a key victory over St. James after going 1-2

The St. Peter high school girls’ volleyball season is underway. The Saints started off the year quite shaky, but have since rebounded to win a couple straight and hope to keep up the high level of play throughout the year.

The St. Peter Saints were 1-2 heading into a crucial match with winless St. James. The Saints wanted to right the ship early on so the team could get back on track before the season potentially got out of hand. St. Peter definitely got back on track, defeating St. James 25-12, 25-20 and 25-18 in three straight sets. Leading the way for the Saints was experienced varsity player Ellie Johnson, who had 15 digs and four ace serves. Johnson is now only one dig away from her 1,000th in her career. Claire Nuessmeier joined the party as she finished with a dozen kills, four blocks and one dig. Setter Kayla Oeltjenbruns finished the match with 17 assists, while Nicole Ebeling made her way to the stat sheet as she had eight digs, two ace serves and three blocks. Sarah Conlon also contributed, notching four kills. This match improved the Lady Saints record to 2-3 heading into a big matchup at Fairmont.

The next match at Fairmont gave the Saints a true down-to-the-wire comeback win. St. Peter dug themselves into a deep hole to start off the game, getting down 0-2 as Fairmont came out victorious in the first couple games 23-25 and 17-25. If St. Peter wanted to win, they would have to rally to win the next three games. They did just that.

The Lady Saints dominated play on the court over the course of the final three, winning by the score of 25-23 in game three, 25-11 in game four and 15-10 in a match-clinching game five. Senior Ellie Johnson achieved a major career milestone in this game, getting the 1000th dig of her impressive varsity career. She now has 1024 digs for her career and led the Saints in this game with 25 of them, respectively. Johnson added a kill and a couple of ace serves as well. Paige Hewitt stuffed the stat sheet as she led St. Peter with 25 set assists to go along with seven digs and four kills. Kayla Oetijenbruns claimed 12 set assists with 11 digs, while Claire Nuessmeier spiked 17 kills. Carlie Chabot found her zone in this game, picking up 18 digs and two kills. It was a season-defining comeback with St. Peter starting to make some major noise in the Big South as they have yet to lose in conference.

St. Peter’s upcoming schedule includes trips to Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, Blue Earth and a home match versus Waseca.