Cats win 5 set thriller at Home

A great start, a rocky middle, and an exciting finish was the only to describe the St. Paul Wildcats 5 set victory at Home Thursday night on Country 96.

The great start came from Katie Oakley and the Cats in the first set catching Sutton out of position early to take an early 25-20 victory as the Junior led the way with 7 kills.

The Fillies made things tough on the Wildcats in the 2nd and 3rd sets while Oakley was able to stay hot with 9 kills, service errors became a problem in the 2nd set for the young squad. Sutton was able to adjust to Oakley and forced the Wildcats to make mental mistakes en route to falling behind 2-1 after Sutton takes the next 2 frames 25-21,17-25.

While frustration mounted in the 2nd and 3rd, the Cats could've caved and called it a day in the 4th but they stayed resilient as a key service run from Junior Carly Stepanek with back to back aces led the way for St. Paul to force a race to 15 as they took the 4th set 25-22.

The 5th and final set was a roller coaster of emotions as the 2 teams would chip at leads up until it was 8-8 and the Cats never looked back as Oakley sealed the contest with a slam from the left pin setup by Zaya Lewis to give the Cats the victory 15-13.

St.Paul(2-1) gets their first winning record in the young season and will be back in action on Saturday at the Lexington Invite.

Sophomore Aubree Fitzgerald takes home Runza MVP honors with some clutch kills in the 4th and 5th as she had 7 kills in the final 2 frames.

St.Paul   25  21  17  25  15

Sutton   20  25  25  22  13

Below is the game winning kill by Katie Oakley and Trevor Bentley also caught up with Coach Matt Koehn-Fairbanks after the victory.