The run goes on

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Webster City 3, St. Edmond 0

Attacks-Mandy Finucan 10-11, 1 kill; Maddie Maharry 21-23, 2 kills; Grace Nelson 16-20, 7 kills; Sawyer Gourley 7-7, 3 kills; Britney Roberts 14-14, 5 kills; Breanna Gourley 17-19, 10 kills.

Blocks-Finucan 2, S. Gourley 2, B. Gourley 2.

Digs-Finucan 6, Kari Peterson 3, Maharry 5, G. Nelson 6, Jessica O'Connell 7, Roberts 3, B. Gourley 12, Kelsey Nelson 15.

Assists-Finucan 13, Peterson 8, S. Gourley 3, Maharry 1.

Serving-Finucan 7-7, 1 ace; Peterson 5-6; O'Connell 9-9; Roberts 12-14, 2 aces; B. Gourley 13-13, 1 ace; K. Nelson 9-9.

WEBSTER CITY - As odd as it may sound, getting six straight victories was the easy part. Now things get a wee-bit tricky.

Untouchable in the North Central Conference for nearly a month, the Webster City volleyball team put itself in position to shoot for the stars with a 3-0 sweep of Fort Dodge St. Edmond, 25-19, 25-18, 25-21, Thursday night inside Jefferson Gymnasium.

Ever since a four-game loss to Iowa Falls-Alden in their league opener back on Sept. 11, the Lynx have quietly gone about their business of moving up the NCC leader board. Six straight wins later, all in 3-0 routs, they now find themselves in a second-place tie with Humboldt and trail only Class 3A fourth-ranked and conference unbeaten Algona heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.

Fittingly, Humboldt and Algona will be Webster City's final two league opponents. Let the fireworks begin.

"It would be nice to be 7-0 (in the conference) right now, but 6-1 is a good position to be in," Webster City head coach Jessica Kastler said after her squad improved to 15-9 overall Thursday night. "Quite honestly, I think we can do it if we get everybody together in those last two matches."

The Wildcats will be up first next Thursday in Humboldt. Algona will visit Jeff Gym on Tuesday, Oct. 21.

The scores look relatively mundane, but Webster City was forced to scratch and claw for every point against a St. Edmond (4-19 2-6 NCC) squad looking to put a wrinkle into the conference standings. Behind 6-foot-1 middle blocker Alison Nagel, the Gaels forced the Lynx out of their comfort zone and into more mistakes than usual. Nagel finished with six blocks and that didn't sit well with Kastler.

"That was something we worked on this whole week in practice because we knew Nagel was going to be in the front row," Kastler said. "With her height, we knew it was going to be tough to get around her and we had a problem with that in the first and second games."

St. Edmond led early in Game 1 and then traded points before Webster City went on a 6-0 run to put some distance on the scoreboard. A kill by Breanna Gourley - one of her team-high 10 - off a short set pushed the Lynx ahead, 15-10, and a few points later she smacked another kill to the ground for an 18-11 edge.

Maddie Maharry got in on the offensive attack, as did Grace Nelson with two kills, late in the game. Britney Roberts finished it off with a kill from the middle of the court that glanced off the arm of a Gael defender.

Grace Nelson had seven kills on the night. Roberts added five, Sawyer Gourley finished with three and Maharry contributed two.

Webster City never trailed in Game 2. Roberts put down three of her kills in the stanza, two coming late to inch her team closer to the victory.

A tip to the back of the court for a point by Mandy Finucan, followed by back-to-back swats from the outside by Grace Nelson pushed Webster City to a 19-12 advantage in what turned out to be the final game. St. Edmond's time finally ran out when Breanna Gourley slammed the ball through a block on match-point.

Kastler admitted that it wasn't her team's best performance of the season and she says her team will have to find its 'A' game before its match with Humboldt.

"It's good to see the girls be able to come out on top even when they don't have their best performance," she said. "But it's not encouraging to see that going into the last two (matches) of the season because they're going to be really tough."

Libero Kelsey Nelson was again the defensive catalyst for the Lynx, as the senior snared 15 digs. Breanna Gourley came up with 12, Jessica O'Connell seven and Finucan had six. Finucan and Kari Peterson combined to dish out 21 assists.