St. Vincent VB ready for rematch with Notre Dame after Crystal City sweep

The St. Vincent volleyball team returned home from the Dig For Life Tournament with a three-set win over Crystal City (25-9, 25-15, 25-14) on Tuesday, Sept. 12, in Perryville, Mo.

"Crystal City is a bit down this year," St. Vincent coach Darren Verseman said. "We handled the ball well, I was very pleased with that, and we played pretty well."

Emersyn Pitts led the Indians (6-7-3) with 12 kills. Verseman said a change in mental approach has led to more confidence and more results.

"[Pitts] has been very huge at the net especially," Verseman said. "She started to not think about it too much and just go after it. She used to hit a ball out of bounds and look and ask me 'What did I do? What do I need to do?' And now she's kind of just saying, 'heck with it, I'm gonna go,' and that's paying off. You can think yourself into trouble sometimes."

Notre Dame knocked off St. Vincent in the Dig For Life Tournament on Saturday and will face the Indians again today at 6:30 p.m. in Perryville, Missouri. The Bulldogs prevailed 2-1 on their way to the Red Division semifinals.

"There are some things that Notre Dame brought to the table that some of our blockers hadn't seen before," Verseman said. "We weren't ready for it and they got some free looks at the net. We addressed it in practice [Monday], we talked about some more [Tuesday] and hopefully, we'll be ready for that now."

Notre Dame dispatched both Cape Central and St. Vincent before falling in the semifinals to Advance, who went on to win the tournament after a nearly decade-long hiatus.

“I’m just very proud of the girls’ effort,” Bulldogs coach Meredith Brinkmeyer said. “Advance is always a good game. I always like seeing them because of the style of volleyball they play. They play quicker and have hard tips. I’m just very proud of how the girls hung in there all day.”

St. Vincent's Haley Emmendorfer sets the ball against Crystal City on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at St. Vincent High School in Perryville, Mo. Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

Overall, the Indians went 2-2-2 in the Dig For Life Tournament with wins over Gideon and Lesterville and a draw with Poplar Bluff and South Iron. They dropped two sets to Park Hills Central but forced a third set against Notre Dame.

"I learned some things about them," Verseman said. "I learned some things about how I need to interact with them. On Friday, we didn't play well and I didn't handle my business very well and that kind of made them nervous a little bit, more nervous on the court than they needed to be. Saturday they came out and all day they were focused and their energy was up."

There have been multiple St. Vincent players thriving with their newfound opportunity on varsity as the season progressed. So far Verseman said he's been impressed with junior Brigid Sauer and sophomore Alaina Cates among others.

"I'm really happy with our middles," Verseman said. "They both played middle before, but I'm really happy with how they've reached playing at the varsity level. Especially Alaina, as a sophomore, physically, it's asking a lot of a sophomore to return to play against juniors and seniors. She's done a pretty good job of it. Allison Bierk, she's just everywhere in the back row and our setters, I thought they've done a good job as well, both Ava [Layton] as well as Allie [Patrick]."

After taking on Notre Dame, St. Vincent travels to Jefferson on Thursday and returns home to face Valle Catholic on Monday.