“We’re still trying to figure out who is playing what position,” said St. Anthony Coach Cathy Wenthe. “We have never played the lineup we did tonight. We’re just inexperienced, which is something we have to deal with. But give them credit. Their outside hitters are really good.”

The Lady Hearts threatened to pull away a couple times in the opening game. St. Anthony held a 6-5 lead early, but EHS came back to build a six-point lead, 13-7, led by five on four difference occasions. EHS was still on top, 14-9, when the Lady Bulldogs went on a 10-5 run to knot the score, 19-19.

Boatman then recorded a kill to put Effingham ahead to stay. Urch added another kill to make it 24-20 and Boatman closed the first game with yet another kill.

The host Lady Bulldogs broke out to a 3-0 lead in the second game. But two consecutive kills by Urch and another by Chrappa quickly tied the match. After a kill by St. Anthony’s Stella Passalacqua, the Lady Bulldogs held a slim 12-11 edge.

But it was all Effingham the rest of the way.

Boatman recorded three kills, while Chrappa had two and Urch and Kennedy Sowell one each, helping the Lady Hearts finish the match on a 14-3 run.

“I thought we play aggressive and with enthusiasm,” Bohnhoff noted. “We had 11 hitting errors in that first game, which hurt us. But they were aggressive errors. We were just missing some of the shots.

“We need to improve our consistency,” the EHS coach added. “We’re having a hard time hitting when the ball is off the net. We just can’t hit it on the net. When we play bigger teams, they will just block those shots. And we need to work on serving aggressively and returning aggressive serves.

“But overall, I thought we played pretty well tonight,” Bohnhoff said.

Wenthe was impressed with the play of her libero, Elizabeth Kabbes.

“I thought Elizabeth did a heckuva job tonight,” she noted. “She’s our only returning starter and played a strong match. She served well, got kills from the back row and just played aggressive, which is what a libero is supposed to do.

“We need to continue working on our transition and our passing,” Wenthe added. “We just didn’t earn our points tonight.”

Bohnhoff said she always looks forward to the Pink Out game.

“It’s always a fun game and a big crowd, which just makes it more fun,” she explained. “I thought we’d have a little advantage this year due to our height. But most years, the two teams are evenly matched.”

For the Lady Bulldogs, Elizabeth Kabbes had 3 kills; Claire Scheidemantel 1 kill; Stella Passalacqua 1 kill, 4 points; Kate Hartke 1 ace, 4 points; Claire Sudkamp 1 kill, 1 point; Taylor Ritz 3 kills, 3 points; Kyra Swearingen 10 assists, 6 points; and Ada Rozene 2 kills.

For Effingham, Taylor O’Dell had 1 assist, 1 dig; Hayley Dively 1 kill, 16 assists, 2 digs; Alexis Chrappa 7 kills, 1 assist, 8 digs, 1 block; Kennedy Sowell 2 kills, 1 dig, 1 block; Sam Urch 5 kills, 4 aces, 2 digs; Jacy Boatman 8 kills, 11 digs; Callie Feldhake 1 kill, 2 digs; Morgan Hagler 1 assist, 2 digs; and Olivia Martin 5 digs.

The Lady Hearts also won the junior varsity match by scores of 25-18, 26-24; and the freshman contest by scores of 25-18, 25-21.

St. Anthony, now 0-2, will play Thursday at Robinson.

Effingham will also play Thursday at home against Mt. Zion.