Cavaliers are heading back to the state tournament

By Joe Kavanaugh, Journal staff | Wednesday, November 12, 2008

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RAPID CITY — Coming into the 2008 volleyball season, first year St. Thomas More head coach Brandon Kandolin was not exactly sure what to expect. In addition to heading up a completely new coaching staff, he would be inheriting a team that had lost nine seniors from a 2007 state tournament team.

His answer arrived via first-class delivery Tuesday night as the Cavaliers swept Black Hills Conference rival Hot Springs in the Region 4A volleyball finals, 25-21, 25-15, 25-23, earning a return trip to next week’s state tournament which begins Nov. 20 at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.

“After last year’s success — to come in with a new coaching staff and a new team — we’re basically starting all over again,” said Kandolin.

His anxiety of going into the season with an unseasoned and untested team slowly began to subside as the season progressed.

“I think the highlight was winning the league tournament. At that point, I, and the other coaches, realized that with the talent and cohesiveness on this team, we had a chance to pull this off. I’m very proud of what they’ve accomplished,” Kandolin said

The win over Hot Springs did not come as easily as a three-game sweep might indicate.

The hotly contested first game certainly underlined that point. It was, perhaps, the key to the match as well.

The game was a topsy-turvy affair with the lead teetering back-and-forth featuring a bunch of points where the larger Cavalier front line of Erin Duffy, Alexa White and Katie Freidel consistently applied pressure on the smaller Hot Spring defense which countered with one dig after another.

Finally, at 18-all, Freidel stuffed a Hot Springs spike attempt and quickly followed with a booming spike down the line. The flurry gave the Cavaliers an advantage they would not relinquish.

“Hot Springs is a great team. We knew that going in,” said Kandolin. “And we knew it would be very important to get on top of them right away. Winning that first game was crucial and it gave us the momentum we needed and were able to sustain the rest of the night.”

Hot Spring head coach, Stacie Collins agreed.

“The first game was close and I think we worked hard. When we came up short, I think my team began to doubt themselves as to whether they could compete with them,” Collins said. “Beyond that, we simply did not block well tonight, and we needed to do that in order to take the pressure off our back row.”

Before Hot Springs recovered from the first-set loss, it dropped the second-set decisively, 25-15, and were down, 12-5, in the third as the Cavalier big hitters were constantly given excellent attack opportunities courtesy of the superb setting of senior Kelsey Bekaert.

The Bison fought back, drawing within a single point at 24-23, the seemingly inevitable final curtain fell when Alexa White blasted the final winner up the line.

“It’s a great feeling,” said  White, who slammed home 14 kills on the night. “I mean after going to state last year, we just couldn’t settle for anything less. Tonight everybody was pumped and focused on making that happen.”

Duffy, who had a team-leading 15 kills, was equally jubilant.

“To accomplish this in my senior year is really special. You dream about doing this, and now going back to state the second year in a row is just awesome,” she said.

Hot Springs sophomore Carlie Weiss put on an impressive display leading her team in kills with six, and 13 digs. Junior Randi Weiss led the team in assists with 12.

St. Thomas More takes a 27-7 record into next week’s state tournament while Hot Springs concludes its 2008 season with a 21-10 record.