What a five-day period it was for St. Vincent volleyball last week.
On Tuesday, Sept. 30, the Indians (18-6-2) first clinched the JCAA Small School Conference Championship with a 3-0, road sweep (25-12, 25-7, 25-17) over Herculaneum (5-10-2).
Four days later, St. Vincent won its second title of the week by going 5-0-1 in the annual Perryville Tournament to claim the Gold Division Championship on Saturday at the Perry Park Center.
The lone team the Indians tied with at the tournament was Potosi (20-4-2) in pool play during the morning session, which St. Vincent then had a rematch with for the title in the final game of a 10-hour day later that evening.
After recording back-to-back sweeps of Cape Central (18-10-3) and Ste. Genevieve (14-9-1) in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of bracket play, respectively, the Indians lastly swept the Trojans 2-0 (25-20, 26-24) to take home the championship trophy plaque.
Coming up clutch for St. Vincent was one of the top star athletes in all of Missouri, senior outside hitter Kate Rubel. Rubel produced double- digit kills in each bracket game as whenever the Indians needed a big-time attack, they went to Kate.
In the title match, Rubel came up with a team-high 12 kills as she had the same amount against Ste. Genevieve for a 2-0 win (25-20, 26-24), while producing 13 in St. Vincent’s commanding 2-0 sweep (25-23, 25-13) over Cape Central.
“It feels nice — we’re all starting to click together, so that’s definitely a good thing, especially when it comes to volleyball,” Kate said. “I feel like everything is starting to flow and that the hard work is paying off. We’re all super close on and off the court.”
Along with her thunderous spikes, Rubel was also key in serving the ball as her serves led to multiple runs throughout each bracket match in key, momentum-swinging moments.
Outside of this, Kate more than showed up defensively as she recorded a season-high four blocks versus Potosi, which features another one of the top hitters in the Show-Me State, Trojans junior Eden Robart.
Rubel was also key as a defender in the back row, where she recorded double-digit digs in each bracket match, having 14 in the Ste. Genevieve game, 13 against Potosi and 10 versus the Tigers.
On top of Kate’s sheer athleticism, she’s also one of the most competitive players that anyone could hope to find. Following the semifinals, Kate was focused and staring intently at the other semifinal happening across the gym between Potosi and Leopold.
“I was just watching them — we play Leopold on our Homecoming week, and that’ll be a big game for us,” Rubel explained. “I wanted to watch both sides because I wanted to be ready for whoever we played. I’ve just always been competitive in anything I do.
“When you’re on a team, it’s more fun to win, but you also have to know, ‘OK, that was a good kill. Like, no one is going to get that up.’ That’s also the other side of being competitive is also knowing, ‘Hey, that was just a good kill, or that was just a good block.’”
This past Monday night, Rubel and her five fellow classmates on the team, including her twin sister in Indians star setter Brie Rubel, were celebrated prior to their 3-0 sweep (25-22, 25-19, 25- 11) of Class 2 District 2 opponent Woodland (10-8-2) for Senior Night.
Kate has been a four-year starter at the high school level, and while she’s primarily focused on her career as a basketball player, she’s nearing 1,500 kills for her volleyball career.
“It definitely doesn’t feel real that this is my last year — it’ll hit more later in the season, I think,” Kate said. “We’re all super excited for what’s to come, though. Volleyball is just a whole different game than basketball, mentally, especially.
“It’s just always how hard you want it. The energy shifts faster in volleyball — you get a kill or a block, and you have great energy. The block comes on your side, or the kill comes on your side, and it stinks. The energy shifts so much and so fast that you have to keep up with it.”
Rubel’s skillset and competitive nature is what sets her apart from most, something that could help lead St. Vincent to not only hoisting a fifth-straight district championship later this month, but perhaps even a state title in November as well with all the other talent surrounding her.
In her own right, Kate’s twin Brie had quite the performance in the Perryville Tournament for the Indians to come away with the trophy. Rubel posted double-doubles in each bracket game as she had 30 assists and 15 digs against Cape, 22 digs and 18 assists versus Ste. Genevieve and lastly 25 assists and 19 digs in the title game.
Having one of her top performances of the season in the championship game was senior libero Callie Schnurbusch as she finished with a game high 28 digs. Schnurbusch, who is in her first and final year as St. Vincent’s starting libero, has now had 20 or more digs in six matches.
Fellow senior Alaina Cates — the Indians starting middle blocker — also had a key performance versus Potosi to win the title, producing five kills and seven digs. Along with that, Cates finished with six kills in the quarterfinal round.
The Indians two other seniors — outside hitters Clara Clifton and Kennedy Cissell — both made key plays at the net throughout the tournament. Clifton was also big while playing in the back row to come up with crucial digs.
St. Vincent’s other middle blocker, junior Sophie Verseman, came up big defensively against the Trojans, too, as she paced Kate Rubel’s four blocks with three of her own. Another Indians junior who had big rounds in the semifinal and championship as well was defensive specialist Paige Leible by combining for 22 digs with 11 in each match.
Junior Aubrey Emmendorfer has also been continuing to make strides on the varsity level as she even started in the title match versus Potosi.
“We seniors are all great about cheering on everyone else,” Kate said. “Welcoming all the young kids who have joined us on the bench, so I think that’s always a big thing. We’re all just super excited.”
St. Vincent’s Homecoming next week will be the final of the regular season for the Indians, who will first face crosstown rival Perryville (8-15-2) on Tuesday at the Perry Park Center.
On Wednesday, St. Vincent will host one of the top teams in the area in Leopold (21-4-2) for its final match of the regular season.
