By DONN ADAMSON\Daily Journal Sports Editor

Published: Saturday, August 26, 2006
Updated: Friday, August 25, 2006 11:15 PM CDT

PARK HILLS - The Mineral Area Lady Cardinals completed the first day of their tournament as well as their first matches of the season on Friday and fared pretty well. After dropping their first match 1-2, the Lady Cardinals swept the next two matches 2-0 in each.

NW Shoals after defeating Mineral Area also went on to win their next two matches (See Friday Scores on page 6).

“We should have won the first match,” said MAC coach Tim Copeland. I think the girls were a little nervous at first, since it was their own tournament. We started to communicate better and took it to them in the second game.”

Mineral Area lost to NW Shoals 26-30, before bouncing back for a 30-11 trouncing, only to see it slip away in the third game 10-15.

The home team was given a battle by Lindenwood Gold in their first game of MAC's second match 30-28, but they ran away with game two 30-16.

By the third match, the Lady Cardinals were pounding the ball at will when they defeated Three Rivers 30-22, 30-14.

“The season is still early, but they are making progress after only three games into the season,” said Copeland. “We are playing a 6-2 this year, and Ana (Markovic) is working out good setting with Jen (Gabrian).

Markovic had 40 sets for kills on the day, and Gabrian had 34. (Gabrian was MAC's lone setter last year.) Angie Clewis led the team in kills with 25, Gabrian had 24, Monika Jaroszewicz nailed down 21, and Andrea Lucas had 17.

Clewis shared 11 double blocks and also had four solos, while Lora Dickey had six doubles and two solos.

Mineral Area will be back on the floor at 10:15 today against Shawnee which is also 2-1. Matches start at 9 a.m. with the last round scheduled for 2 p.m.