Local News

Knights fight back but fall in state opener

ST. PAUL - The Sleepy Eye St. Mary's Knights have shown that they can battle back and even beat teams viewed more favorably than them this season.

While that tenacity was on display by the seventh-seeded Knights on Thursday night, St. Mary’s wasn't quite able to put enough together to knock off the second-seeded Fillmore Central Falcons in a Class A State Volleyball Tournament quarterfinals match at Grand Casino Arena. The Falcons shook off a second-set win by the Knights and did enough in the final two sets to earn a 25-17, 22-25, 25-23, 25-17 win.

The win moves the Falcons on to a semifinals game against Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa at 3 p.m. Friday on Court 2, while the Knights fall to a consolation semifinals game against Mayer Lutheran at 3 p.m. on Friday on Court 1. Both games will be played back at Grand Casino Arena.

"We started slow, picked it up in the second set to come back, which has kind of been our story this year, especially during our playoff run," Knights head coach Crissi Mangen said. "Third set we were right there with them as well and in the fourth set we kind of gave it away. So, a lot of momentum changes, which really hurt us in the end."

Morgan Mathiowetz led the Knights with 14 kills, 14 digs, one solo block and two block assists, while Audra Hoffmann had 12 kills, 14 digs, two aces and a solo block. Brynne Ibberson had 23 set assists and 11 digs for the Knights, while Olivia Schieffert added four kills, 12 digs, three block assists and two aces and Taylor Mathiowetz had five digs and two aces.

Hannah Vaalemoen led the Falcons with 14 kills and two set assists, while Lauren Dahly had 12 kills and three aces and Madilyn Zwart had nine kills. Braelynn Corson had 20 set assists also for the Falcons, while Josiana Corson had 20 digs, Ava Larson had 16 digs and Norah Nagel had 10 digs.

The Knights had a rough start to the first set, falling down 5-0 before calling a timeout to readjust. After falling down by 6, they cut their deficit to 13-10 midway through the set, but the Falcons turned up the heat with their attack and finished the set on a kill by Larson.

Set 2 saw a new St. Mary's team that took Fillmore Central off guard a bit right away. An ace serve by Ibberson had the Knights up 8-1 early on, but the Falcons chipped away at the deficit, tying it at 11-all before going ahead on an error. Despite falling down 20-16 late, a timeout by Mangen helped get her players back on the right track as they came out of the timeout with a 6-0 run to lead 22-20. That run saw a kill each by Morgan Mathiowetz and Schieffert and two aces by Taylor Mathiowetz. The Falcons got a pair of points after that, but a spike by Morgan Mathiowetz put the set away and tied the match.

"It's great to have that resiliency and come back in games like that and you just kind of need that to get momentum on our side," Morgan Mathiowetz said. It's tough playing behind, you just have that behind your back and you just have that thought in your head that you have to come back, but I think we believe in each other that we can and we know we can and we have before, we've shown that in sections, and I think just knowing we can do it, but there were just some pieces that were missing tonight."

The Knights looked good in Set 3 also and led 11-5 after three consecutive Falcons hitting errors. The Falcons battled back, however, getting a kill and consecutive aces all by Dahly to go up 22-20 late. The Knights tied it twice after that, but a kill from Vaalemoen and an attack error ended the set and gave the Falcons the 2-1 advantage.

The Knights fell behind 20-11 in the fourth set but managed to cut their deficit to 20-15 after kills from Morgan Mathiowetz and Schieffert. A couple of St. Mary's service errors followed, however, and the Falcons and an ace serve by Braelynn Dierkes finished the night.

Despite the loss, Hoffmann said she thought the Knights' hitting was effective against a very strong triple block that the Falcons put up.

"We saw a triple block, which we don't see much, but they knew that we were gonna be a good team, but I don't think they were expecting us to be as strong of a hitting team as we were," she said.

Ibberson said working against the triple block was tough but she learned from it and ended the night with confidence.

"Since we had the triple block, we had to adjust sets a little bit and then adjust who we were going to and where we were going to because of their good blocks," Ibberson said. "Some parts I felt confident in and some parts I was like, 'I could have done that better.' But it's also just moving on to the next play, and I know I have great hitters and great teammates around me that will help me up when I'm down, and that's what they do, and I think that helps a lot with my confidence as well."