Volleyball (10/6)

Volleyball: Morken Moves into Second Place All-Time with 885th Career Win

Mabel-Canton won two volleyball matches on the week, sweeping both Lanesboro and Kingsland in SEC action. Doing so did more than just put the Cougars one step closer to another SEC-East title. Lonnie Morken, in his 32nd season as M-C’s head volleyball coach, moved into second place all-time on the Minnesota volleyball coaches win list with 885 career victories. The only man ahead of him is former Stewartville coach John Dzubay with 1,039. Morken has captained Cougar teams to state on four occasions (2000, 2001, 2022, 2023) while making numerous other section title matches. The last two state trips included one or both of his daughters Sophie and Sahara. Cougar squads have won league (division or out-right) titles the last 27 years. Their SEC win streak is at 213. Since 2000, M-C has had 10 girls make 1st Team All-State; Kinley Soiney, Sahara Morken, Coranda Vickerman, Kenidi McCabe, Belle Sand, Kate Horihan, Tori Lind, Brittany Pierce, Karlie Urbaniak and Molly Horihan. As for the games, the #7 Cougars beat Lanesboro 3-0 (25-23, 25-15, 25-16), sweeping the season series. The above-mentioned Soiney had 28 kills on .575 hitting plus 10 digs and four total blocks. Braylee Stortz (8 kills, 7 digs, 16-16 serving), Gwen Rein (38 assists, 6 digs), Tylar Wenthold (6 kills), Ella Halverson (6 kills, 4 total blocks), Lauren Burke (8 digs, 15-15 serving, 3 aces), and Livia Garness (6 digs) also did work. The Burros were led by Jensyn Storhoff (12 kills, 14 digs, 5 assists), Emma Ruen (4 kills, 14 assists, 11 digs), Jentrey Schreiber (4 kills, 7 digs, 4 aces), and Kaylee Gilbertson (5 digs). Kingsland fell 3-0 (25-8, 25-12, 25-12), as Morken won #885. Stortz (14 kills, 7 digs, 16-17 serving, 5 aces) had a big night. Soiney (14 kills) and Halverson (10 kills) gave the Cougars three with 10 or more spikes. Rein (40 assists, 5 digs, 3 aces) kept the arms swinging. Wenthold (5 kills), Kaci Wangsness (5 digs), and Hailee Eiken (4 kills) helped. Chloe Drury-DeBoer (7 digs), Emma Howard (7 assists), and Paisley Robinson (5 digs) led the Knights. M-C (9-0, 22-3) leads the SEC-East over Spring Grove (7-3, 8-7). Kingsland is 1-8, 3-14.

Volleyball: #6 Warriors Serve and Block to Sweep of #3 Falcons

There are still a handful of TRC matches left to be played. But their contest was probably the biggest left on the league schedule. Caledonia (6-0, 15-3), ranked #6 in Class AA, hosted Fillmore Central (5-0, 13-4), ranked #3 in Class A. The winner took one big step forward to the league championship. Each entered having beaten two-time defending champion #4 in AA Chatfield. But a hyped match ended up being one-sided. Dan Reinhart’s Warriors served and blocked their way to a convincing win. It was rare that a match of ranked teams was not denoted by hitting. Caledonia finished with 25 kills, FC 22. But the Warriors finished with 17 combined aces and blocks while FC had 10. The blocks discrepancy was 8 to 1. And the aces discrepancy was 8 to 3 until the Falcons had six in the third set, the only set they were in. Game one saw Caledonia have five aces and FC had five service errors in a 10-point Warrior win (25-15). Caledonia senior 6’0” middle Kensey King was an important factor, limiting Falcon top hitter Madi Zwart. The latter had four kills in game one, but only six kills for the match. King (3 kills, 2.5 ace blocks) turned away just about as many of her shots as that scored. Caledonia took game two 25-14. In each contest, Elsa Blum had a four-point service session that put the Warrior controllably ahead (13-5 and 12-6). The third set was the only one that was competitive. FC took its first lead of the match at 3-2. They led most of the game including by as many as five and 15-10. But Caledonia then scored 8 of 11 points to tie the match 18-18. It was the first of five ties late. The teams combined for 54 digs (unofficially) in the third game. FC led 22-21 but the Warriors finished with four straight points. Two were (fittingly) blocks. King did so to Zwart and then King and Avery Augedahl combo-blocked down the match-securing point. Caledonia (7-0, 16-3) won by sweep (25-15, 25-14, 25-21) and stands as the last TRC-play unbeaten team. Second place FC (5-1, 14-5) suffered its first league loss. The wicked-serving Ashlyn Reinhart (9 kills, 7 digs, 15-16 serving, 4 aces) led Caledonia on the attack. Avery Augedahl (21 assists, 11 digs), Aubrie Klug (11 digs), Blum (4 kills, 10 digs), Adrienne Lange (4 kills) and Paizley Lange (4 kills) also did work. FC was led by Kyla Hellickson (8 kills, 19 digs), Norah Nagel (6 kills, 3 aces), Hannah Vaalemoen (11 assists, 8 digs), Josie Corson (18 digs), Aubrey Daniels (10 assists), and Zwart (6 kills). The latter came in with no less than 12 kills in every other TRC match, and 86 total (17 per league outing).

Volleyball: Larks Run Win Streak to Nine

Grand Meadow posted two sweeps of two SEC-West foes to grab two more wins. Cathy Paul’s girls have now won nine straight matches. The Larks took down Kingsland 26-24, 25-14, 25-12. Four GM gals had at least five kills; Kendall Jack (8 kills, 11-11 serving, 4 aces), Alyvia Olson (8 kills, 6 digs), Gracie Foster (7 kills, 5 aces), and Holly Weiss (5 kills). Hallie Hendrickson accrued 26 assists plus 6 digs and 3 aces. Cheyenne Bakken and Rylee Holst each had 10 digs. Emma Howard (9 digs, 10 assists), Kalyn Stier (14 digs), Chloe Drury-DeBoer (13 digs), Paisley Robinson (9 digs), Jill Moore (7 digs), and Kaelynn Howard (3 kills) led a mostly defensive Knight squad. GM beat Glenville-Emmons 25-14, 25-7, 25-12. Hendrickson (6 kills, 21 assists, 6 digs), Olson (9 kills), Foster (8 kills), and Bakken (11 digs) did the biggest work. Jack (5 kills, 8 digs), Weiss (6 kills), Sophia Braun (4 kills), and Regan Schaalma (5 digs, 5-5 serving, 3 aces) helped. The Larks (9-0, 17-4) lead the SEC-West over Southland (7-3, 7-4). 

Volleyball: Trojans Win Two, Improve to 9-2 

A bit lost in the fact that their immediate area contains four state ranked teams, Rushford-Peterson volleyball won two more matches to improve to 9-2 overall. They won their fifth straight TRC contest by sweeping La Crescent/Hokah 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-21). Torryn Schneider (10 kills, 17 digs, 15-15 serving) was good all-around. Addison Drinkall also had 17 digs. Shelby Tesch (7 kills), Kayla Magin (6 assists, 6 digs, 3 aces), Brielle Schneider (4 kills, 5 digs), and Grace Ekern (10 assists, 5 digs) also did work. R-P then battled Southland in non-conference action. The match seemed destined for five sets. R-P led two-sets-to-one but the Rebels used a 7-0 run early in game four to lead 14-6. They later led 19-10 and 23-17. R-P finished with a 15-4 prolonged run, an 8-0 run to end the match. The freshman libero Drinkall served the last seven points (including a pair of aces). Tesch had a block and a kill in the final eight points, T-Schneider two kills. Madison Ingvalson finished it off with a free-ball kill. With a big comeback, R-P won 3-1 (25-14, 23-25, 25-19, 25-23)! Drinkall (32 digs, 15-16 serving, 6 aces) and T-Schneider (13 kills, 33 digs) combined for 65 digs. Ava Helgemoe (14 kills, 8 digs), Magin (28 assists, 14 digs), Ekern (19 digs), Avree Connaughty (8 assists, 16-16 serving, 5 aces, Tesch (7 kills, 5 total blocks), and Ariana Bettinger (6 kills) helped. R-P (5-1, 9-2) is tied with FC (5-1, 14-5) in second place behind Caledonia (7-0, 16-3). The Trojans’ only league loss is to the Warriors, but they have matches with the state-ranked Falcons and Chatfield left yet. 

Volleyball: Lion Volleyball Downs Burros, Takes Second at Century Tourney 

Spring Grove volleyball went 5-1 for the week, including a runner-up finish among large schools at the Rochester Century Tournament, and avenged an earlier split-set loss with a split-set win versus Lanesboro as well as completing a season sweep over Schaeffer Academy. It all began and ended at Rochester, starting with a 3-0 lashing of those other Lions (25-13, 25-10, 25-15). For the second time this season, SG outscored SA overall, exactly 75 points to 38. Brinley Middendorf started the home team with eight ace serves in addition to a match-most 10 kills with a strong 40% hitting efficiency. Claire Sherburne directed the attack with 27 set assists and scored herself with four kills and no errors on only eight attacks. Hailey Normann (42% efficiency) added 7 kills on 12 attacks. Four kills each came from Madison Lile and Kylie Hammel. Jada Strinmoen served 11 for 12 with 3 aces while adding 6 digs. Izabel Kaufmann led SG with nine digs. Schaeffer (1-9 SEC, 3-15 overall) earned only nine points while accepting 29 points from SG errors. Grove, after dropping an earlier 3-2 decision at Lanesboro, earned a season split by 3-1 win (21-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-21). In both cases, the loser of the first set came back to win the match. Middendorf excelled again with a career-high 20 kills. Both teams served 93% while breaking even with seven aces and seven errant serves. Each team had 42 scoring errors. Grove mounted 168 attacks, Lanesboro 169. But the Lions scored with five more kills (47 to 42) and two more ace blocks (6 to 4). Neither team was as efficient at the net as desired – Spring Grove with an 11% hitting efficiency (47 kills, 29 misfires) and Lanesboro at 9% (42 kills, 26 errors). Most efficient for the home team was Normann at 24% (12 kills, 3 errors) and Middendorf at 21% (20 kills, 10 miscues). Hammel added 9 kills. Izabel Kaufmann served 19 for 20 with two aces and led Lion defenders with 25 digs. Claire Sherburne directed the attack with 39 set assists and defended with 19 digs. Jada Strinmoen had 17 digs, Elle Berns 11. For the Burros (4-6, 11-9), Jensyn Storhoff had 16 kills, 11 assists, and 18 digs. Emma Ruen had 22 assists along with 8 kills, and another 18 digs. Sari Rein contributed 4 kills and 5 blocks. Jentrey Schreiber scored with 7 kills and 3 aces. Hailey Erickson was credited with 4 kills and 6 digs. Ellie Howard defended with 17 digs, Kaylee Gilbertson 10, Jewels Lidke 8. In this 94th Burro versus Lion match, all sets were close with the SG outscoring LHS overall, 96 points to 91. Set two was tied 12 times, set three seven times. In the final set, SG led only 20-19 before four consecutive kills by Middendorf. In the eight-team tourney at Century, the Class A Lions placed second in a field of predominately larger-schools. In pool play, there was an opening 2-0 win (25-19, 25-19) over host AAAA Century followed by a crucial 2-1 victory (25-21, 19-25, 15-11) against AAAA Tartan (Oakdale) and a 2-0 triumph (25-15, 25-14) versus AAAA Rochester John Marshall. In the championship match, Kelsey Morken’s group fell to AAA Mankato West, 0-2 (20-25, 23-25). Lion tourney leaders were Sherburne (7 kills, 64 assists, 22 digs), Madison Lile (19 kills), Normann (22 kills), Middendorf (17 kills), Strinmoen (27 digs), Kaufmann (49 digs), Hammel (18 kills), and Carlie Halverson (17 digs). SG (7-3, 11-8) trails M-C (9-0, 22-3) in the SEC-East.

Three Rivers Conference Volleyball (9/23)

Wabasha-Kellogg 0, #4 in AA Chatfield 3 > 25-13, 25-7, 25-14 (C: H. Goldsmith 29 assists, 4 digs, 3 aces; Trindy Barkeim 15 kills, 5 digs; Cora Bicknese 10 kills, 14 digs; Hannah Tweten 13 digs; Amaya Harmening 6 kills) 

Southeast Conference Volleyball (9/23 & 9/25) 

Lyle/Pacelli 3, LeRoy-Ostrander 2 > 22-25, 25-12, 25-13, 23-25, 11-15 (L-O: Meah Stevens 24 assists, 7 digs; T. Lewison 23 digs; Madi Stern 11 kills, 15-16 serving, 3 aces; Miranda Nagel 8 kills, 4 aces, 6 total blocks; Maria Almaraz-Nolt 4 kills, 12 digs; Kendall Olson 4 kills; Keira Lewison 6 kills, 14 digs. Cardinals are 4-5 in the SEC, 7-10 overall) 

Houston 3, Schaeffer Academy 0 > 25-14, 26-24, 25-22 (H: J. Meyer 8 digs, 11 aces (one error); Olivia Yohe 18 assists, 13 digs, 3 aces; Emmie Melbo 10 digs, 4 aces; Averie Evanson 9 kills; Lydia Pedretti 6 kills; Trinity Lisota 3 kills, 7 digs. Behind Meyer, Houston served 20 aces with just six errors. Hurricanes are 4-5 in the SEC, 8-10 overall) 

Non-Conference Volleyball (9/25) 

#3 in A Fillmore Central 3, Zumbrota-Mazeppa 0 > 25-23, 25-21, 25-19 (FC: Madi Zwart 14 kills; Lauren Dahly 6 kills; Hannah Vaalemoen 4 kills, 13 assists, 17-19 serving, 7 aces; K. Hellickson 3 kills, 21 digs; Norah Nagel 4 kills, 12 digs; Aubrey Daniels 18 assists; Josie Corson 14 digs)