Panthers close tourney on two-match win streak

COON RAPIDS - The St. Mary's Panthers finished fifth in tournament action at Coon Rapids-Bayard over the weekend, finishing with a record of 2-2 in the eight-team field.

St. Mary's opened with two straight losses, falling to Iowa Christian Academy 12-21, 15-21 and Adair-Casey 21-23, 18-21. However, the Panthers began to find their footing and rallied to win their last two matches by topping Exira 21-8, 21-17 and Paton-Churdan 25-22, 25-13.

"We started the tournament not playing our best and I thought we could have at least ended pool play at 2-1 instead of 1-2," said SM head coach Courtney Berg. "However, we ended the tournament on a high note winning our last 2 matches to finish 5th out of 8 teams."

Leading the Panthers Saturday, Anyssa Lenhart finished the tournament 43-of-45 hitting with 18 kills and added 14 digs and three blocks. Alyssa Drey was 39-40 serving with five aces, 17 digs and four kills, Cassie Todd had seven aces and nine digs, Ashley Lullman had five aces and 27 assists, and Mary Rose Timko had 20 digs.

The Panthers were effective at the service line all tournament, finishing 138-of-144 as a team with 22 aces.

"Serving continued to be our bright spot as we only missed six serves the whole day," said Berg. "We got a chance to see a lot of different players play and see what they could do at the varsity level. This allowed us to try and find that right mix of girls that play well together and give us the best chance to win. Overall, it was a great day for us and we come back home against Ruthven-Ayrshire with a two-match winning streak."

St. Mary's hosts R-A Thursday in what will be their first home contest of 2010.