Photo by Paul Trende
A young Mabel-Canton team has had its inconsistencies this year, but won two play-off games to earn a berth in the 1A semis. Versus 13-seed LeRoy-Ostrander (11-14) in the Round of 16, M-C (4-seed, 22-8-1) posted a 3-0 sweep (25-7, 25-9, 25-13). Freshman Braylee Stortz had 15 kills on .636 hitting plus 5 digs. Ella Halverson (10 kills, 18-20 serving, 5 aces), Gwen Rein (29 assists, 7 digs), Livia Garness (3 kills, 7 digs, 13-14 serving, 5 aces) and Lauren Burke (15 digs) were also big. Mya Tweten (6 kills) and Kaylee Kleppe (8 digs, 3 aces) helped. L-O was led by Kim Volkart (3 kills, 14 digs), Maria Almaraz-Nolt (4 kills, 14 digs), Maci Guttormson (5 kills), Vanessa Lewis (12 assists, 5 digs) and Tierney Schulte (8 digs). The Cards’ season finishes at 11-15. In the 1A quarters, the Cougars (4-seed, 23-8-1) took on Alden-Conger (5-seed, 18-9), a squad with a trio of girls hovering around 6’0” or better. Game one was tied 19-19 before the Cougars scored four in a row for a 23-19 lead. They won 25-20. The Knights jumped out 15-6 in game two. M-C made it closer, but the A-C evened the match at 1-1 via a 25-17 win. Game three saw M-C jump out 8-3 and then never trail. A-C closed to down 17-14 and was mounting some momentum only to an errand serve to squelch the run. Cougar eighth grader Mya Tweten then scored with a kill, then Stortz. M-C prevailed 25-16. The fourth game was tied 11-11 before M-C went on an 8-2 run to lead 19-13. Alden-Conger got within three at 22-19, but Rein’s third blind overhead setter attack kill of the match made it 23-19. Burke followed with an ace. M-C prevailed 25-20. They took the match 3-1 (25-20, 17-25, 25-16, 25-20). Standouts Halverson (17 kills on .342 hitting, 5 total blocks), Stortz (16 kills, 17 digs, 16-17 serving, aces) and Rein (4 kills, 43 assists, 10 digs) led the way. Kleppe (17 digs), Burke (15 digs), Garness (4 kills, 11 digs, 20-20 serving, 3 aces) and Ava Austin (7 digs) helped. M-C had a season-high 87 digs. Tweten added a key 7 kills. The Cougars also had a season-high nine blocks. M-C (4-seed, 24-8-1) moves on to face #2 in Class, #1-seed FC (22-6) in a 1A semifinal.
Leave a Reply