ST. HENRY — St. John’s volleyball is a program on the rise.
The Lady Blue Jays match versus perennial power St. Henry Thursday night was one of those measuring sticks to see how far they have come.
In the end, the Lady Redskins used their experience in big matches to win a 2-hour thriller 25-20, 19-25, 21-25, 25-15, 15-11 in the Midwest Athletic Conference opener for both units.
“I am so proud of how hard these girls played and how well. I challenged them to up their level of play after our first two matches and they responded; the girls were just awesome,” St. John’s coach Kaila Cook noted. “This would be like a signature match, a game where we find out what we’re capable of. I have known all along what they can do and I think the girls have, too; they just proved it tonight against a very good St. Henry team.”
The Redskins’ record (1-4) was misleading, having played in a Centerville meet that include such powers as Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame and Chaminade-Julienne.
That helped them overcome a 2-1 deficit in games to force game 5. Junior Shelby Buscher (5 aces; 15 kills; 22 blocks-in-play; 7 digs) served her fourth ace to open the ultimate game; the Redskins would never trail again. They got out to a quick 6-2 edge, forcing Cook to call time.
Back came the Blue Jays with three straight: a kill by junior Ashley Jettinghoff (9 kills; 8 digs), an ace by Katie Grothouse (18 digs) and a hitting error. From there, the teams battled but the Jays could not tie the game. With St. Henry setters Kayla Brunswick (23 assists) and Brandi Elking (22 assists) using their myriad of weapons, the hosts were just too powerful down the stretch, getting the victory when Chelsey Kremer (14 kills; 10 playable blocks) put down a kill off the Blue Jay block on match point.
Game 5 was necessary when the Redskins came out ready to rally in game 4 behind Buschur, Brooke Mattingly (8 blocks; 9 kills), Kenzie Bruggeman (7 kills) and libero Cassie Luegers (15 digs). They jumped out to a quick 12-5 lead and controlled the game from then on, outside of a brief Lady Jay spurt.  When Buschur pounded a kill off the Blue Jay defense, it knotted the match at 2 apiece and forced the finale.
“I was so surprised how scrappy St. Henry was. I couldn’t believe how much they dug up on us,” Cook continued. “They got an awful lot of touches on our hits but so did we on theirs. It just came down to us making a few more mistakes in game 5. You’re going to make mistakes in volleyball — you just try to make less than your opponents. As well, we let down a little bit at the start of game 4 and they took advantage.”
Both teams went at it tooth and nail in the opening installment, pounding the ball back and forth and getting lots of blocks and digs. The Jays’ twin towers of sophomore Lindsy Reindel (15 kills; 22 playable blocks) and junior Nicole Wallenhorst (11 kills; 18 blocks) tried their best to lead the way in a game that had no lead more than 3 — until the stretch. St. Henry won seven of the final nine volleys — with Cook calling two stoppages to try and stem the tide — and put the opener in their column on a hitting error.
Game 2 was much the same; neither team could get more than a 3-point lead and neither could get on a run until the end. Up 20-19, the Jays got two errors from their hosts and then Reindel came up huge: a stuff, a kill and another stuff; to even the match at a game each.
The Redskins started to misfire more frequently in game 3 and the Jays gladly accepted the largesse. Keyed by spurts of seven in a row — six with senior libero Katie Grothouse (18 digs) at the serve — and five (Jettinghoff serving 4), the Jays led 24-15 on a Wallenhorst stuff. Back came the Redskins to make things much too interesting, scoring six straight. However, junior Denise Knippen (5 kills) put one down the hit the back line to give the Jays a 2-1 edge.
“I believe that you can learn more from a loss than a win. Right there, we need to learn to keep playing until 25 points,” Cook added. “They gained momentum and carried it into game 4. We also found out we can compete against teams of this caliber. It hurts to lose one like this but this should do wonders for our confidence.”
Senior Stephanie Knippen added nine kills and classmate Samantha Laudick 11 digs for the guests.
The Jays hit the court again Saturday (10 a.m. JV start) at Kenton.
In JV action, St. Henry (2-0, 1-0 MAC) downed the Jays (2-0, 0-1 MAC) 25-20, 25-22.