LEOPOLD COLLECTS 20TH WIN AT ND's EXPENSE

There are three basic entities which give personality to Leopold, a tiny one-road village in Bollinger County.

The Catholic church.

The school.

And the volleyball team.

Leopold's Lady Wildcats won their 20th game of the season Thursday night, a 15-7, 11-15, 15-5 victory over Notre Dame, spoiling the Lady Bulldogs' senior night.

After "slipping" to "just" 18 wins last year, Leopold improved to 20-5 with Thursday night's win. Though these Lady Wildcats may not quite be up to the standards of the 1997 team which won state with a 28-4-2 record, their winning percentage to this point is consistent with that team.

Leopold has managed 20 wins without the caliber of athletes it has had in the past. The Wildcats don't have a marquee player like some of their more impressive teams in recent history."We're solid all around," said Leopold coach Leanne Huffman. "We have a very deep team and no one standout."But if the Lady Wildcats want to go anywhere in the state playoffs, the team has a lot of improving to do, especially after a somewhat sloppy game against Notre Dame."It was a nice win," Huffman said. "But I don't feel we played as good as we could have. We have a lot to improve on before district. We had some good points, but we made more mistakes than we should have."Notre Dame, meanwhile, dropped to 10-14-1. Lady Bulldogs coach Helen Payne was pleased, though, with the team's performance."I thought we played well," Payne said. "I don't have a problem with the way we played tonight. We have the ability to beat just about anybody; it's just a matter of working together as a team."In the opening set, it looked as if Leopold would roll to an easy victory as the Lady Wildcats coasted to a 6-0 lead before Notre Dame could even manage a side out.

Notre Dame cut the lead to 7-4 before Leopold put the first set away with seven unanswered points.

The second set started out much the same way. Leopold jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but Notre Dame battled back, taking the lead for the first time at 9-8 on an ace by Gabrielle LeGrand. Notre Dame never relinquished its lead in the second set."Our serves were real good in the second set," Payne said. "We hit the ball hard and just played a real good floor game."Leopold seemed to regain its composure in the third set, again jumping out to a huge lead. Only this time it didn't let Notre Dame back in it.

Jennifer Elfrink led the Lady Wildcats with five kills and seven digs. Gwen Vandeven and Sarah Gowen each had four kills and Gowen added a team-high 11 assists. Also for Leopold, Emily Broshuis provided three kills and Kelly Wesbecher served up 10 assists.

Notre Dame was led statistically by Cindy Cox, who had four kills. Rachel Beussink had three blocks and Michele Hency scored seven service points.