In what was one of the top volleyball matches in Southeast Missouri so far this season last Wednesday night at Advance, St. Vincent senior Brie Rubel stepped up when the Indians needed her most.
During a five-set, 3-2 road win (25-22, 22-25, 25- 23, 17-25, 15-11) against the area powerhouse Hornets, Rubel came up with an astounding career-high 48 digs, which officially ranks her third all-time for a single match in MSHSAA history.
Just like any other night for the Indians, Brie was putting her body on the line to prevent the ball from hitting the ground. Whether it was darting to and hovering over her own team’s bench or diving to the bottom of the net, Rubel kept nearly 50 points off the board for Advance with her head-turning digs.
A few weeks ago, Rubel surpassed 1,000 career digs as she already has well over 200 on the year. Brie has done so all while serving as St. Vincent’s leader on offense as the team’s setter and not as the main defender at libero like she did last fall.
Along with her historic performance defensively, Rubel finished the match with 46 assists on offense as the duo of Indian senior hitters Kate Rubel — Brie’s twin sister — and Clara Clifton tied for a team-high 15 kills.
This was the second-most assists Rubel has recorded this fall as she produced a career-high 47 in St. Vincent’s 3-0 sweep of Valle Catholic one week ago and has over 400 on the year.
Additionally, in the win over the Warriors, Kate and Clifton combined for 24 kills as Rubel finished the contest leading all attackers with 14.
Like her twin, Kate was also key for St. Vincent’s defense in both games as she recorded 30 digs versus Advance and had a game-high 24 against Valle, while Brie was right behind Kate with 20 in the matchup with the Warriors.
Even though Kate is the Indians’ top hitter with over 150 kills, Rubel plays a lot in the back row because of her defensive prowess, and she’s still very much a lethal threat hitting the ball from there despite being far from the net.
In fact, Kate already has over 200 digs on the year, ranking her second on the Indians behind Brie as she recorded a career-high 38 digs in a 3-1 road win over Jefferson Festus on Sept. 18.
On top of her own 15 kills versus the Hornets, Clifton paced The Rubel Twins on defense with 22 digs. Indians senior libero Callie Schnurbusch was also a major key defensively as she had herself a career match with 34 digs by making key adjustments to Advance’s offensive attack.
Another phase the Indians were strong in defensively against the Hornets was in the front row as junior middle blocker Sophie Verseman notched a career-high eight blocks along with her eight kills. Brie Rubel also showed some authority at the net as she blocked a shot of her own.
The day after traveling to Advance, St. Vincent picked up a 3-0 road sweep over JCAA Small School Conference opponent Grandview (25-9, 25-16, 25-14) for the team’s fifth win in a row last Thursday.
With a win over Herculaneum this week, the Indians can claim this year’s conference championship.
Looking ahead to this Saturday, St. Vincent will compete in the annual Perryville Tournament, which will be hosted at the Perry Park Center as well as Perryville’s elementary and middle schools.
The Indians (10-5-1) are set to begin pool play that morning against the likes of Potosi (12-3-1), Clearwater (1-17) and St. Louis Ignite (N/A).
Each team will then be seeded in bracket play according to their pool record as the top-two teams from the four pools will compete in the Gold Bracket that afternoon.
Other notable teams in this year’s Perryville Tournament, of course, include the host Pirates (5-11-1), along with Cape Central (14-6-2), Leopold (17-1-2), Seckman (14-5-2), Ste. Genevieve (11- 4-1) and Windsor (13-3-1).
