Chargers challenge Giants but fall in 4
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Jenna Bates hits the ball during a South Central Conference volleyball match against LeSueur-Henderson on Monday night at MVL’s Storm Fieldhouse.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Ellie Kaesermann goes up to attack the ball during a South Central Conference volleyball match against LeSueur-Henderson on Monday night at MVL’s Storm Fieldhouse.
Chargers come up short to Giants Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Jess Meunier dives for the ball during a South Central Conference volleyball match against LeSueur-Henderson on Monday night at MVL’s Storm Fieldhouse.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Emmalie Fluegge attacks the ball during a South Central Conference volleyball match against LeSueur-Henderson on Monday night at MVL’s Storm Fieldhouse.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Jenna Bates hits the ball during a South Central Conference volleyball match against LeSueur-Henderson on Monday night at MVL’s Storm Fieldhouse.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Ellie Kaesermann goes up to attack the ball during a South Central Conference volleyball match against LeSueur-Henderson on Monday night at MVL’s Storm Fieldhouse.
Chargers come up short to Giants Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Jess Meunier dives for the ball during a South Central Conference volleyball match against LeSueur-Henderson on Monday night at MVL’s Storm Fieldhouse.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Emmalie Fluegge attacks the ball during a South Central Conference volleyball match against LeSueur-Henderson on Monday night at MVL’s Storm Fieldhouse.
Trending
NEW ULM -- For three sets on Monday night, the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers made the LeSueur-Henderson Giants work for every point in their South Central Conference volleyball match.
But the Giants did enough in the second and third sets and figured things out in the fourth to clinch a perfect 10-0 conference record and defeat the Chargers 13-25, 25-22, 29-27, 25-13.
After an attack error opened the first set to put LSH (22-6, 10-0) up 1-0, the Chargers (17-8, 4-6) got a little bit of everything to storm back and go up 6-1, with kills from Ellie Kaesermann and Jenna Bates, a pair of aces from Olivia Hammer and a block from Emmalie Fluegge during the run. That success continued for the Chargers in the opening set and after the Giants inched closer to trail 16-13, the Chargers ran away with a 9-0 run to take a 1-0 match lead, getting an ace from Taryn Gunderson to finish the set.
But the Giants looked more themselves in the second and third sets and turned it around. The third set was extra draining for the Chargers as they lost a late 23-20 lead to fall 29-27.
That third set ended up being a big momentum boost for the Giants, who flipped the first-set score around to win the fourth and match.
"They came out really hot [in the fourth set] and they stayed with that momentum," MVL head coach Johanna Kelly said of LSH. "LeSueur-Henderson is just such a good team, especially this year. They're top of the section. Once they started figuring things out, it was definitely harder for us, but we kind of hung on for a couple of sets and then by the fourth set, they really figured us out."
As for what the Giants figured out, much of it Kelly credited to their serve.
"They're serving started to become a problem for us," she said. "Kind of picking apart out serve receive a little bit and that made it harder for us to get it to a lot of our hitters who usually have a better night who didn't get as many looks for whatever reason because we were out of system or whatever it was."
The Giants never trailed in the second set, but the Chargers were always right on their heels. The biggest lead the Giants had in the set was an 18-13 lead that forced Kelly to burn her first timeout of the night. Hammer had a kill and Bates added an ace after that timeout to have MVL down 18-15 and moments later the Chargers trailed 19-17. A kill by senior Victoria Hutton, who became a problem for the Chargers for much of the night, put the set away.
The Chargers looked in better shape for the third set, going up 17-11 after a Kaesermann kill, but the Giants stomped back to trail 18-17 and force an MVL timeout. The Chargers kept their lead and increased it to 23-20 after an ace from Tori Stagter, but the Giants hung around and ended up taking a 25-24 lead. After a Bates kill had the game tied at 27-all, Hutton had back-to-back spikes to put the Giants up 2-1 in the match.
The Chargers were competitive with the Giants in the first third of the final set but the Giants steadily built their lead and went up 19-12 after a block by Elsie Meger. The Chargers got a point after that, but the Giants closed the set and match with a 5-0 run, getting back-to-back aces from Elena Meger to finish the night.
Bates led the Chargers with 17 kills, two blocks and two aces, while Fluegge had 10 kills and three blocks and Kaesermann had 10 kills. Olivia Hammer added five kills, 11 digs and three aces for the Chargers, while Graysie Black had 38 set assists, eight digs and two aces and Taryn Gunderson had 18 digs and three aces. Kam Davey added two kills and two blocks also for MVL.
The end result may not have been what the Chargers wanted, but they did take away some confidence from the loss heading into Monday's Section 2AA playoff match against Holy Family Catholic in Victoria.
"It shows us we can do it," Kelly said. "We can be that team and all bets are off, especially in the postseason, it's a whole new season. So we're definitely carrying that positive aspect of today's game into our next game."