The Spring Valley Cardinals beat the Glenwood City Hilltoppers three sets in a row to take the win in a best of five series during Week 1 of Dunn-St. Croix Conference play in Spring Valley Thursday night.

The Cardinals got out to a fast lead in Set 1 as they raced to 10 points while only allowing three to the Hilltoppers. Glenwood City charged back though, taking six of the next 10 points and bringing the score to 14-9 in favor of Spring Valley. A time out was called after right-side hitter Charli Vanasse had a kill to round out the 10-point exchange.

This pause marked a quick reset for the Cardinals as they were able to bookend the match by taking 11 of the next 13 points to secure the win, including an 8-0 run coming out of the time out.

Set 2 began the same way Set 1 ended with the Cardinals dominating the Hilltoppers. Spring Valley charged out, taking an 8-1 lead before Glenwood City called a time out. The next series was more even again, almost a carbon copy of Set 1 where the teams went even at 5-5 through the next 10 points bringing the score to 13-6.

The Cards ran up the score to 17-7 before the Hilltoppers called another time out. The stoppage would prove futile though as Spring Valley immediately went on another 8-0 run coming out of the time out to win the set, 25-8.

To Glenwood City’s credit, they came out swinging in Set 3, taking the score to 5-5 after the first 10 points. This trend continued until the score was 8-8. However, that’s when the Cardinals came alive and went on an 8-1 run to take a commanding 16-9 lead.

They didn’t let up either, just 10 points later it was 24-11 and game point. A kill by outside hitter Mara Ducklow ended it, and the Cardinals won 25-11 with a clean sweep in their first matchup of conference play.

Ducklow tallied 15 kills, two aces, 10 digs, a .667 hitting percentage and a 71.43% kill percentage against the Hilltoppers. Vanasse also played well, with nine kills, seven digs, a .636 hitting percentage and an 81.82% kill percentage.

Head Coach Kelli Schlegel said she feels like the team has gotten completely dialed in just in time for conference play.

“It has taken us a little while to get to where we wanted to be rotation wise and trying people in new positions,” Schlegel said. “As of Tuesday, we kind of figured out where we want everybody and that's kind of shown tonight.”

Vanasse and Ducklow are the two captains on the team. They’re both seniors playing their fourth year of varsity volleyball, and they’re the leaders on and off the court for this Cardinals team.

“I thought it was a good start,” Vanasse said. “We have a young team this year, but the communication is really good. We play well as a team.”

The Cardinals did have some turnover in the offseason with personnel, but the group this year is fairly well balanced with five seniors, one junior, and the rest sophomores - many of whom are getting their first taste of what it’s like to play varsity volleyball. So far, it’s gone well for the red birds as they were 12-5 in nonconference play going into the season.

“We have a young team this year with young passers, and they’ve really stepped up,” Ducklow said. “Our setter is a sophomore too, and it’s her first year on varsity.”

With a nice mix of veterans and young talent, the hope is for a deep run into the postseason this year, a goal that Coach Schlegel is going all out for after coming up just short last season when Elmwood-Plum City won their first ever conference title and Division 4 regional championship.

“We came down to the last game of the season for conference. Both Elmwood-Plum City and us were undefeated going into the conference title game. We choked unfortunately, but we went on to go to the Division 3 regional final game,” Schlegel said. “Our main goal is to win the conference title. We’re hungry for it since we were so close last year, and we felt it slip away. So, we're definitely going after that and trying to get to that regional final.”

Ducklow said the team has higher aspirations than regionals though.

“We want to go further. To state,” Ducklow said. “Why not?”

Week 2 of Dunn-St. Croix Conference volleyball play begins on Tuesday at 7 p.m, when the Cardinals will travel to Colfax to play the 1-0 Vikings.