File photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran players celebrate a kill during a home match this season. Pictured from left to right are Becca Kuck (10), Kerigan Brau (11), Mackenzie Merseth (12), Ella Hunter (5) and Gabbie Bleick (20).

NEW ULM — Without sugarcoating it, Minnesota Valley Lutheran will enter this year’s volleyball playoffs as the city of New Ulm’s biggest underdog.

The Chargers wrapped up their regular season on Monday night with a four-set loss at Waseca to drop to 2-23 on the year.

The Chargers have taken a couple sets in several Tomahawk Conference matchups this year, but one key issue has been finishing those matches.

“We have had trouble finishing games when we have the lead at the end,” MVL head coach Amy Pearson said. “It has turned into a pattern recently for us, so we are working on getting over that hump.”

The Chargers will next shift their eyes up to No. 1-seeded New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva in a Section 2AA first-round playoff match at 7 p.m. Thursday in New Richland.

“The good news is that we have absolutely no pressure and they have all of it,” Pearson said. “They’re expected to win and we can come in and wreck that. We give it our all and we can play with them.”

The Chargers met NRHEG earlier this season at a United South Central tournament in Wells, falling in two sets.

“We played NRHEG at the USC tournament earlier this year and while the outcome didn’t go in our favor, we held our own in the first set,” Pearson said. “So we’ll watch that set and see what we can build on for seeing them now at the end of the season.”

This season, junior Ava Munsen had led the Chargers with 195 kills and 47 blocks. Gabbie Bleick, another junior, adds 151 kills, while junior Mackenzie Merseth and senior Becca Kuck each have 82 kills. Junior Kerigan Brau has managed the offense with 421 set assists, while junior Ella Hunter leads the team in digs with 227.

After winning 21 matches in 2018 and 24 in 2019, the Chargers went 3-9 during a shortened 2020 season and 11-14 last year. This season has been a rough one to say the least, but Pearson knows her team has the potential to do more and is hoping to see that on Thursday.

“I feel like our record doesn’t reflect our true potential,” Pearson said. “There have been some close games that we haven’t won but were in. Having the record we have gives us motivation to work on something after every game. It’s easy to get complacent when you have a winning season, when it’s the other way, we can always get better.”