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Kendra Erickson digs surprise

Cougars sweep Falcons on senior's milestone night

By Travis Rosenau 4 min read

MORGAN -- Early on in Thursday night's nonconference volleyball match against Red Rock Central, a dig by senior Kendra Erickson led to a kill by her twin sister Sophia Erickson to put Cedar Mountain up 11-8 in the first set.

Everyone on the court for the Cougars were extra fired up for that point, but Kendra Erickson looked puzzled when the cheers continued long after the point was awarded. That was because her dig was the 1,000th for her career, and everyone seemed to be in on the secret but her.

The Cougars ended up sweeping the Falcons on Kendra Erickson's milestone night, winning 25-14, 25-18, 25-14.

"I was excited that everyone started to cheer, but I didn't even know I got it, but everyone started to cheer and it just made me happy," Kendra Erickson said. "Just kind of motivated for the future."

Kendra Erickson finished the night with 12 kills, 19 set assists and seven digs, while Reagyn Kleinschmidt had 13 kills, 10 assists and six digs and senior Aubrey Steffl had nine kills and 10 digs. Grace Guetter led the Cougars in digs on the night with 18.

RRC was led by Zoey Keck's six kills, 14 digs and an ace, while Paige Wondercheck had two kills, Natasha Erickson had eight set assists and Kendra Schroeder had 11 digs.

Kendra Erickson got the first kill of the night for her team, while Kleinschmidt and Steffl followed her with two kills of their own to help put the Cougars up 6-5. A kill from Kendra Lueck made it 7-4. While the Cougars had back-to-back errors to let the Falcons get within 1, 9-8, Lueck had another kill before Kendra Erickson's milestone dig led to her sister's kill that made it 11-8. Another kill by Kleinschmidt had Cedar Mountain up 12-8.

The Falcons got back within 2 after that, 12-10, following a kill by Keck, but the Cougars started to run away with it after that, finishing the set on a kill from Steffl.

After building an 11-6 lead in Set 2 on a kill from Kendra Erickson, errors started racking up on the Cougars again before an ace from Keck tied it up at 11-all. The Cougars took the lead back but the Falcons hung around until a 5-0 run by the Cougars ended the set, which ended on an ace serve from Kleinschmidt that tipped off the net and dropped over.

The Cougars jumped out to a 5-0 lead in Set 3 thanks to three Kendra Erickson kills. The Falcons got back within 2 before the Cougars started to pull away again, this time with a 6-0 run to lead 21-11 and force an RRC timeout. The run saw three consecutive kills at the end of it, one from Evy Heibel, one from Kendra Erickson and one from Kleinschmidt.

RRC stopped the run out of the timeout wtih a kill by Lilly Batalden, but the Cougars finished the night with a 3-0 run and back-to-back kills from Kendra Erickson.

While she passed 1,000 career set assists last season and is closing in on 1,000 career kills, Kendra Erickson was happy to celebrate a defensive milestone on Thursday on senior night.

"Defense is the way that we score," she said. "If you don't get a good pass, you're not going to be able to score on offense."

The sixth-seeded Cougars next host 11th-seeded Springfield in a first-round Section 2A playoff match on Monday.

Kendra Erickson said the key to that match will be not taking the Tigers for granted and putting in a full effort, especially since it's the last season of Cougars volleyball for the Erickson twins and Steffl.

"I think the key is our attitude," Kendra Erickson said. "Last time [we played Springfield], we knew we could beat them but we didn't put in a full effort, so I feel like now it's playoffs, we've got to play harder because it's our last year."

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