St. Mary's Cardinals Start Season Off Running

Jacquie Stowell prepares to go up for a shot against a tough Neligh defense.

St. Mary's Cards went to Verdigre on Tuesday and won 62-28. St. Mary's jumped out early with a 14-8 half lead and then out scored the Lady Hawks 20-4 in the second quarter giving up only four free throws during the quarter. Verdigre, playing their first game because of the snow storms, shot only 13% and had 45 turnovers. St. Mary's playing their third game shot 30% and also had a high number of turnovers, 28. The Lady Cards did, however, have 49 rebounds, 23 steals and 19 assists.

Lady Card leaders were Anne Kersenborck with 18 points; Liz Willis with 14 points and 14 rebounds; and Ashley Vandersnick with 12 points, 12 rebounds. Jenna Connot added five points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Lady Hawks leaders were Kelsey Randa with six points, eight rebounds and Candace Shackleton with 10 rebounds.

St. Mary's vs Elgin

Friday, Dec. 9 the Lady Cards traveled to Elgin to play the Lady Eagles and won 61-33. St. Mary's jumped early on Elgin with a 23-9 first quarter and started the second half out with a 16-6 third. St. Mary's was finally able to control their turnover problems, turning it over only 14 times compared to the average of 28. The Cards' shot 42% to Elgin's 34% and out shot Elgin by 25 shots. (29-29 to 15-44). The Lady; Cards out rebounded the Eables 43-25.

Leading the way for the Lady Cards was Jenna Connot with 16 points, 10 rebounds. Liz Willis also added 15 points, nine rebounds, four assists. and four steals. Anne: Kersenbrock had 12 points with four steals. Ashley Vandersnick contributed eight points and 12 rebounds.

Nichole Bauer led the Lady Eagles with nine points and seven rebounds Chrissy Staman added eight points. The Lady Cardinals played Neligh-Oakdale on Tuesday

and travel to Rock County on Friday, Dec. 16.

The St. Mary's Lady Cards started the 2005-200.6 season at 1-1. On Friday, Dec. 2, the Lady Cards defeated the Orchard Orioles 45-38. The contest was very competitive and aggressive with the two teams combining for 53 free throw attempts. The first quarter turned out to be basically the difference with St. Mary's jumping out to a 14-5 lead. After the first quarter the game was pretty much nip and tuck. Leading scorers for the Cards were: Jacquie Stowell, 12; Anne Kersenbrock and Ashley Vandersnick, both nine each; and Liz Willis, seven. Willis also pulled down 14 rebounds and Kersenbrock had six steals.

Leaders for the Orioles were Michelle Newman with 18 points; and nine rebounds; Melissa Sorenson with eight points and 10 rebounds. Denise Couch also put in eight points.

St. Mary's vs Clearwater

St: Mary's lost to Clearwater the following night 64-36. A game that started out very competitive turned south in the second half for the Cardinals of St. Mary's. At the half Clearwater led only 26-20. In the second half, a tired St. Mary's team could only manage 16 points and four rebounds. A mixture of things could have been responsible, playing an excellent team, no action for eight days and a competitive game the night before contributed to the lackluster second-half.

Leading the way for the St. Mary's Cards was Liz Willis with 13 points, followed by Jacquie Stowell with six and Carol Koenig with five. Ashley Vandersnick and Jenna Connot led the team with four rebounds each. Anne Kersenbrock had three steals for the team.

For the Clearwater Cards, Maggie Pelster had 21 points, eight rebounds, three assists and seven steals. Jennifer Duff added 16 points.