Saints taking no chances in march toward state

By Kristi Nixon

ST. ANSGAR — St. Ansgar keeps coming up against Iowa Star Conference opponents in regional play and the Saints have to keep fighting them off.

Coach Tyler Johnson’s squad faced a feisty Riceville team that changed up its lineup a little bit in the last few weeks of the season, but were able to sweep the Wildcats, 25-7, 25-13, 25-19, in the Class 1A Region 6 quarterfinal on Thursday, Oct. 18.

“The film that I got was from quite a bit earlier in the season,” Johnson said. “So, identifying players was a little bit harder. We knew their kill leaders were (Camdyn) Orth and No. 6 (Tillotti Fair). We knew they really like to set the high two in the middle, so we wanted to stop that. Especially defend the left side of our defense.

“Their conference has depth, so any time you . . . the last two teams were pretty scrappy and you know that comes from playing teams where they are forced to be scrappy. They are not afraid of hard hits and that stuff coming at them because they’ve seen it all year.”

The Wildcats went with Zoey Johnson at libero over Taylor McElroy, something coach Missy McElroy said came from performance. Both are senior captains.

“It was the dynamic on the court there,” coach McElroy said. “She (Johnson) had played libero for us while my daughter, Taylor, was gone, and Zoey did a great job. I’m not selfish, and Zoey was a better serve receiver than Taylor was, and I tried to make hopefully the best decision with that, and it turned out great.

“Taylor also has some great hands and I was able to take some pressure off of (setter) Kylie (Dvorak). Even thought we ran a 5-1, it almost turned into a 6-2 with Kylie setting Taylor and Taylor being able to set to the front row. It kind of helped everybody out on the court.”

According to coach McElroy, once the switch was made, their record improved exponentially, including a run in the Iowa Star Conference Silver bracket.

“When I changed lineups (we) were sitting at 11 wins, 19 losses and ended the season with 18 wins, 22 losses,” coach McElroy said. “I wish I would have done it sooner. I’m glad I did it before the season was over before it was too late. The girls adjusted well, practiced on it, made sure everyone was comfortable with where they were at with some of the changes.”