It was surreal. In the finals of Mabel-Canton’s Labor Day tourney, the host Cougars were beaten. Spring Grove toppled M-C 2-0 (25-20, 25-19), ending the Cougars’ 112-match win streak versus SEC foes anywhere. It was the third straight set the Lions had taken from Lonnie Morken’s bunch. The teams split the pool play match-up, M-C winning (25-16, 21-25). It left the Cougars surreally trailing, in a hypothetical season-best-of-seven-series, 3-1. The teams faced off in their first regular season meeting just days later. It was surreal, a rare highly hyped, highly attended, in-season SEC volleyball match. After a tight first set, the Cougars found status quo and rolled to a 3-0 sweep (25-23, 25-14, 25-16). M-C switched things up a little. They played last year’s 1,000-assist girl Kenidi McCabe purely at setter (38 assists, 15 digs). She hit and set in the tourney match-up. A second switch was having typical-libero, senior Lexi Thorson, also hit (9 kills, 23 digs, 3 aces). Said switches were somewhat dictated by the loss of hitter Avery Davis (injury). Payton Danielson (12 kills) led the offensive effort. Maddy Michels (8 kills on 15 attempts) and Sarina Stortz (6 kills) helped out. Hannah Snell added 16 digs. The win continued M-C’s 121-match conference-match streak, which dates back to 2009. M-C (5-0, 11-1) is ranked #8 in the Class A polls.
121-Match League Streak Alive, Cougars Sweep Lions
