Breaking News
Local Sports

Amped-up Knights sweep Cougars in quarterfinals

By Travis Rosenau 6 min read

SLEEPY EYE - For a pair of teams focused on getting each other out of system Thursday night in a Section 2A Volleyball Tournament quarterfinals match, the Sleepy Eye St. Mary's Knights and Cedar Mountain Cougars both did a good job of doing that.

But after eking out a pair of hard-fought wins during the first two sets, momentum swung fully in the third-seeded Knights' favor as they closed out the third set strong to sweep the sixth-seeded Cougars 25-23, 25-23, 25-16 at St. Mary's High School.

The win moves St. Mary's (23-4-1) on to a semifinals meeting with second-seeded Martin County West at 7:45 p.m. Monday at St. Peter High School. The Cougars finish the year 22-8.

With the Knights routinely having been led this season by senior hitter Morgan Mathiowetz, the Cougars entered Thursday night's playoff matchup intent on getting a better block up on her and disrupting the Knights' offensive flow. While the Cougars did make things tough on Morgan Mathiowetz, she still finished with a team-high 12 kills to go with 13 digs.

However, the Knights got big plays and effort all around, including Audra Hoffmann's 11 kills, nine digs and four blocks.

"It's big that we all are able to put the ball away, because then they don't know where to go," Hoffmann said. "The blockers get confused, they think it's going one way, but we go the [other] and it's big that everyone can put them away."

The Knights did get the set-ending kill from Morgan Mathiowetz in the second set, but the first set saw the set end on a kill by Nell Weiss, while Taylor Mathiowetz finished the third set and night off with a kill of her own.

Olivia Scheiffert added six kills, 19 digs and two blocks for the Knights, while Taylor Mathiowetz had eight digs and Brynne Ibberson had 30 set assists.

The Cougars, meanwhile, have been led all-around by senior Kendra Erickson, who the Knights looked to shut down and turn into more of a passer. She did did finish with a double-double on the night, getting 14 set assists and 10 digs, but was held to nine kills.

Reagyn Kleinschmidt led the Cougars' attack with 12 kills, 15 assists and five digs, while Aubrey Steffl had six kills and 10 digs and Kendra Lueck added five kills and four blocks.

"Our plan was to get them out of system as much as we can because when we get our big block up, we'll be fine," Hoffmann said. "If we get them out of system, they can get their middles the ball and their middles are probably some of their best swingers."

After taking a back-and-forth first two sets, the Knights got an extra shot of confidence and extended their lead in the set by as much as 11, the biggest lead all night.

Despite the first two sets looking like they could be up for the taking, Cougars head coach Beth Hill said she thought the final scores came down to St. Marys' defense.

"I think the difference was probably their relentlessness in keeping the ball coming back over," Hill said. "And we were just a little quicker to let a ball land."

Hoffmann said coming into the match, the Knights were focused on getting good, quality swings from everyone and staying positive.

"I feel like our swinging, we really knew that we needed to swing and just bring as much energy as we can to be able to stay up and sat positive the whole time," she said.

In the opening set, both teams went back and forth until the Knights built a 17-12 lead after a Morgan Mathiowetz kill, forcing Hill to burn a timeout. The Cougars responded to the timeout well with 4 consecutive points to force a timeout by Knights head coach Crissi Mangen. The Cougars turned that run into a 7-0 run to lead 19-18, getting two kills from Steffl and an ace and kill from Kleinschmidt during the run.

After an Ibberson block and an ace by Schieffert forced a Cougars timeout with the Knights up 22-20, the Cougars were able to stay with it and tie it at 23-all on a block by Lueck. But a service error and a kill by Weiss ended the set and put the Knights up 1-0 on the night.

The Cougars had the early advantage in the second set, getting a 4-0 run to lead 7-4. That run saw a kill each from Kleinschmidt, Steffl and Lueck and an ace from Kleinschmidt. The Knights got a 4-0 run back to lead 8-7, aided in large part by two Cedar Mountain violations and an attack error.

After a kill by Hoffmann and an ace by Schieffert had the Knights in control and up 19-14, the Cougars tied it up with a 5-0 run that was capped off on a Sophia Erickson kill. Later in the set after a Kleinschmidt kill tied the set at 23-all, Morgan Mathiowetz hammered back-to-back spikes into the court to put the Knights up 2-0 in the match.

The Knights forced two early Cedar Mountain timeouts after a 10-4 lead and 13-6 lead, but the Cougars were never able to truly recover from the Knights' hot start. Back-to-back Hoffmann kills had the Knights up 15-8 and moments later the Knights took a 22-12 lead after an ace from Morgan Mathiowetz. The Cougars got a late 3-0 run to stay alive, which included a kill from Kendra Erickson, but Taylor Mathiowetz's kill put the match away.

While Hill is happy with the young talent she will bring back next year, she will miss her three seniors from the team this season in Kendra Erickson, Sophia Erickson and Steffl.

"I love them dearly and they have definitely left a legacy behind in their career at Cedar Mountain," Hill said. "They've done a lot of things at a very high level and they'll be difficult to replace."

Starting at /week.