Green Devils mean business
By Kristi Nixon
ST. ANSGAR — A match after celebrating her 500th career kill, Osage’s Kaebre Sullivan added 10 more in a 25-18, 25-7, 25-10 win over St. Ansgar on the road on Thursday, Sept. 2.
While head coach Bryan Tabbert knew his senior outside hitter was in line for the milestone, it came as a surprise to her.
“We had the stats, a spreadsheet,” coach Tabbert said, “we watch and know where they are at.”
Sullivan said, “I didn’t even know I got it. I don’t really look at stats very often, but when I got it, I was like, ‘oh my gosh!’ I was excited and all my teammates were super-supportive and hyped me up. It was really cool.”
Against the Saints, the Green Devils had trouble at the service line, giving up six service errors as the Saints were within a point up until 19-18.
“Every game is a little different,” coach Tabbert said. “Me, personally, coming back to St. Ansgar is weird for me being a St. Ansgar alum. I think the girls get up for this, theSt. Ansgar game is always one we want to win. Sometimes it gets in their heads a little bit. We started slow, but the girls got their rhythm and did a good job.”
The difference between the opening set and the rest of the match, according to St. Ansgar coach Tyler Johnson said was his team’s serve receive.
“We decided to stop passing, serve receive,” Johnson said. “We tried to run our offense from the 10-foot line and we usually don’t win that way. Our first ball, ball-control. After that, we weren’t making first pass.
“I think they would have handed us more points late in the match, too, we just didn’t give them the chance. We made things pretty easy on them.”
More on this story will appear in the Sept. 11 print edition of the Enterprise Journal
