Local News

St. Mary’s blocked by Mayer Lutheran in consolation play

ST. PAUL - For the second day in a row, a team brought a strong and steady block to the Sleepy Eye St. Mary's attack in the Class A State Volleyball Tournament, and it again proved to be enough to take down the Knights.

One day after being upset by sixth-seeded Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, the third-seeded Mayer Lutheran Crusaders' dominant defensive effort helped sweep the seventh-seeded Knights 25-19, 25-20, 25-19 in the consolation semifinals Friday at Grand Casino Arena.

The Crusaders officially tallied just seven blocks to the Knights' five in the match, but when they weren't scoring off a block, they were sending plenty of St. Mary's hits back. The Crusaders also had 60 digs to the Knights' 40.

"Mayer put up an incredibly big block on both Morgan and Audra," Knights head coach Crissi Mangen said. "They slowed down our offense and we made a lot of unforced errors on our end. We simply couldn't shift the momentum in our direction enough to make an impact on their offensive load."

Morgan Mathiowetz still had a strong three sets with her attack, recording a team-high 15 kills to go with 11 digs and two aces. Hoffmann, while held to six kills, had six aces, two solo blocks and a block assist. Brynne Ibberson had 22 set assists and 13 digs also for the Knights, while Olivia Schieffert had four kills and Taylor Mathiowetz had six digs.

The Crusaders were led by Hallie Hunter's 13 kills, 12 digs and three block assists, while Courtney Tuttle had nine kills and 13 digs, Ada Hahn had seven kills, 12 digs and four block assists and Braylin Stahlke had seven kills. Ellie Shipler and Sydney Panek directed the Mayer Lutheran offense with 18 and 17 set assists, respectively.

Neither team was able to pull out to more than a 2-point lead in the first set until a bad set put the Crusaders up 13-10. A kill and ace serve by Morgan Mathiowetz had the Knights back within a point, but the Crusaders held the lead and increased it to 20-15 after a double block by Hahn and Hunter. After a St. Mary's timeout, Morgan Mathiowetz got a kill before an attack error and another kill by Morgan Mathiowetz had the Knights down 20-18. The Crusaders ended up finishing the set on a 5-1 run thanks in large part to three late St. Mary's miscues.

A 5-0 Crusaders run to open the second set forced a quick St. Mary's timeout. The Crusaders pushed their lead to 18-9 after back-to-bad bad sets, but the Knights got hot after that. First came an ace from Hoffmann, followed by a kill from Morgan Mathiowetz and another Hoffmann ace to trail 18-13 and force a Mayer Lutheran timeout. Hoffmann kept her strong serve going by picking up another ace out of the timeout, while an attack error had the Knights down just 18-15.

The Crusaders increased their lead to 24-17 after that and while Schieffert got a kill and the Crusaders had back-to-back attack errors to keep the Knights in the set, Hunter picked up a kill to end the set.

In Set 3, the Knights took an early 8-4 lead after a Morgan Mathiowetz kill, but the Crusaders quickly caught up and took a 9-8 lead back following an attack error. The teams traded points until an attack error, a kill by Hahn and a kill by Hunter put Mayer Lutheran up 19-16 and forced a Knights timeout. Mayer Lutheran finished the set and match on a 6-3 run, with a kill from Tuttle ending things.

The win moves Mayer Lutheran (31-5) to the consolation championship against Chisholm at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, while the Knights end their season 23-6.

While the Knights weren't able to take any hardware home from the state tournament this year, the fight was there, as was the fact that they were the first team in Sleepy Eye history to make a state volleyball tournament.

"I am so proud of this team and all they have accomplished this season," Mangen said. "Our goal is always to make it to the state tournament and we did just that. We have no reason to hang our heads. This team came into my life for a reason, and I feel lucky to have had them in my first year as a head coach."