Chargers held off by Cyclones
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Graysie Black sets the ball during a South Central Conference volleyball match against St. Clair on Tuesday night at MVL High School in New Ulm.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Ellie Kasermann (15) and Emmalie Fluegge (10) go up to try to block an attack during a South Central Conference volleyball match against St. Clair on Tuesday night at MVL High School in New Ulm.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Kamryn Davey smiles after recording a kill during MVL’s South Central Conference game against St. Clair on Tuesday night at MVL High School in New Ulm. St. Clair ended up holding MVL off for a win in four sets.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Graysie Black sets the ball during a South Central Conference volleyball match against St. Clair on Tuesday night at MVL High School in New Ulm.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Ellie Kasermann (15) and Emmalie Fluegge (10) go up to try to block an attack during a South Central Conference volleyball match against St. Clair on Tuesday night at MVL High School in New Ulm.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Kamryn Davey smiles after recording a kill during MVL’s South Central Conference game against St. Clair on Tuesday night at MVL High School in New Ulm. St. Clair ended up holding MVL off for a win in four sets.
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NEW ULM -- The Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers needed all facets of their game to click Tuesday night if they wanted to handle what the St. Clair Cyclones threw at them.
They were able to figure some things out after a rough first set but were unable to complete a comeback in the end as the Cyclones held on for a 25-14, 23-25, 25-21, 25-18 win in a South Central Conference volleyball match at Storm Fieldhouse.
Jenna Bates led the Chargers (8-2, 0-1) with 14 kills and two blocks, while Olivia Hammer had nine kills, nine digs and two aces and Graysie Black had 28 set assists, 10 digs and three kills. Emmalie Fluegge added three kills and two blocks for MVL, while Alexis DeVos had three kills, Kam Davey had two kills and two blocks and Nora Krueger had eight digs and four aces.
The Cyclones (2-3, 1-2) had a big attack led by Payton Blount and Ashlyn DeMartini. Blount had 14 kills and 18 digs, while DeMartini had 13 kills, 21 digs and five blocks. Madison Winkler and Stella Brekke added four kills and three kills, respectively, while Charlotte Dauk and Haddie Jobe had 17 set assists and 10 set assists, respectively. Hannah Brekke added three blocks to aid the St. Clair defense.
The Chargers looked out of sync in the first set, struggling to keep up with St. Clair's relentless attack. The Chargers found themselves down 23-9 after a 7-0 run but got a 5-0 run to come back and trail 22-14, getting two kills from DeVos during the run. But a kill and block from Blount and an MVL center-line violation ended the set.
"They are very diligent on defense," MVL head coach Johanna Kelly said of St. Clair. "They're very scrappy and they do a good job of holding themselves accountable. Whatever their job is, they're gonna do their job, so that's what gives them a lot of really good looks offensively."
Countering that St. Clair defense with better serve receive and passing helped get the Chargers back on track in the second set. While St. Clair went on another strong run in the set and led 15-5 at one point, the Chargers chipped away at the deficit and got a 4-0 run midway through to trail 17-15. That run saw back-to-back ace serves from Hammer and a kill by Davey.
St. Clair pushed its lead back to 6 after that, but MVL stuck with it, tying the game and then taking the lead at 23-22 on back-to-back ace serves by Krueger.
The Chargers put the set away moments later on a kill from Bates.
"We talked about in order to get better looks offensively, we've got to make sure our pass is there to begin with," Kelly said. "You can't execute on offense unless you've got something to work with off of your defense or off your serve receive. So that was a big conversation we had all night long."
The third set was fairly even on both ends, but the Cyclones got a little bit more offense late to tip the scales back in their favor and finished the set with a kill by DeMartini for a 2-1 match lead.
Set 4 saw Hammer begin to get her attack working more, with three kills in close succession by her having MVL down 12-11. The Cyclones pulled away moments later with a 6-0 run to lead 19-12, getting a block from Blount to cap off the run.
With MVL down 21-16 following a violation, Kelly took a timeout and got a big spike from Bates out of it to give MVL some life back. Another point went to MVL after that, but St. Clair ended the set on a 4-0 run to win the match.
MVL hosts Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial at 7 p.m in another SCC match Thursday night.
"Something that is helpful is every game that we play prepares us for the next one," Kelly said. "Especially with St. Clair and Lake Crystal, those are very good teams in our conference, top teams in our conference, so it's always a pleasure to play against them. Our girls are always learning something new about themselves, about the game, whatever it might be, so that's a positive."
Kelly said she expects LCWM to bring its offense and said it will be another great test to see if her team can keep the ball in system and execute offensively.