Cardinals surpass previous year’s win total, maintain best start in school history
Showcasing the best start in school history and surpassing last year’s win total, the Labette Cardinals opened up KJCCC play with a 3-1 (25-17, 2518, 23-25, 25-13) win over the Independence Pirates on Wednesday. The win was Labette’s first over Independence since 2017.
While Wednesday’s home opener went Labette’s way, first-year head coach Deardin Kelley felt the Cardinals were listless.
“I’m not surprised we went four sets because we came out flat as hell,” Kelley said. “I’m not surprised. Independence is a team that won’t knock you off your socks, but they’ll take their opportunities. We didn’t do our job.”
Labette’s serve-receive, a pain point early in the year, was flawless against the Pirates as the Cardinals’ didn’t commit a single serve-receive error.
Libero Dayanara Castillo tallied 15 digs while also receiving 29 serves.
“She performed really consistently, which is what her team needed from her,” Kelley said. “We were failing to get consistency in our offense. So it was nice that she provided that on the back line.”
Allie Rushing led Labette with a dozen kills, albeit on 36 attempts with 12 errors.
“That’s something mental and becoming a student of the game is how she gets past those errors,” Kelley said. “She can’t be one-dimensional.”
Rushing is currently second in the nation in total kills with 148 through 12 matches.
Aubrianna Brown tallied 10 kills on 29 attempts for Labette in a breakthrough outing.
“She was taking her window really well,” Kelley said. “Something all of our outsides have to get better at is knowing when to swing and when to hold back.”
Parsons native Iniya Hinman, who’s second in the NJCAA in blocks with 42, had two on the night.
“Our team is showing a lot of grit and showing that they can respond to adversity,” Kelley said. “They still need to get up and running at a high rate of speed. We can’t let other teams dictate how we play. That comes with age and experience. Tonight wasn’t our best work. But an ugly win is better than a pretty loss. Now we’ll see what they bring in practice.”
Up next
Labette is now 8-4 overall and 1-0 in KJCCC action. The eight wins are already an improvement over last year’s seven.
The Cardinals host two matches on Friday against Rose State and Dallas- Cedar Valley.
“It’s super important (to start conference play well), but I would’ve been more thrilled if our girls came out with the sense of urgency of understanding what conference play means,” Kelley said. “There’s not a huge gap with a lot of the conference. We were more athletic tonight. But that’s not going to cut it against the top teams. I’m proud of growth, but it’s not enough right now.”
