Volleyball: Lions Push #2 Cougars and Their Streak

The streak should again be safe for another off-season. It barely survived. Second-ranked Mabel-Canton has not lost an SEC league match since 2009. In their second meeting with Spring Grove this year, they got pushed, hard. But for a while, it looked like it would be a short night. The teams played a highly competitive game one with a lot of early side-outs. The set had 15 ties. M-C had a 4-0 spurt to lead 14-12. Three points were in a Kinley Soiney service session. They then ended the set scoring seven of the final eight, breaking a 18-19 deficit, and winning 25-20. Soiney was again serving at the close. Game two then saw M-C jump out 7-0 and later lead 18-6. SG re-grouped a bit, but M-C took the set easily 25-15 to lead the match 2-0. A break then ensured as money was raised for cancer.

M-C started set three up 6-1, and they later led 13-8. The rest of the match was then haymaker after haymaker. The Cougars serve receive was not the sharpest and SG has more than enough firepower to keep pace. A 7-1 Lion run put SG in the lead 15-14, as Brielle Neeley had a hat trick of kills in the spurt. Trailing 19-17, SG scored five straight points to go ahead 22-19. Senior Katelyn Kraus had a block and a kill in the span. Said run catapulted the Lions to a 25-22 game three win. Joelle Halverson had six kills in the set (after five combined the first two games). Game four then had 13 ties. M-C went to their top hitters Soiney and Saijal Slafter. SG went to their top hitters Neeley and Halvorson. With it 20-20, SG got kills back-to-back from their stars for the 22-20 lead. A Halverson kill and Kraus/Halvorson block made it 24-21. Halvorson then finished it off two points later. Once down 0-2, SG evened the match 2-2 with another 25-22 victory! Halvorson had another six kills.

Izabel Kaufmann notably denied several big M-C smashes in both Lion wins. But beating M-C means beating M-C. Being tied heading to the fifth does not cut it. Mid game five, Cougar junior Saijal Slafter tipped/placed down several kills, helping the Cougars to a 11-7 lead. Her off-speed flummoxed SG. Down 13-10, Kelsey Morken’s group crept all the way back though, and following a Neeley ace, tied the set 13-13! M-C’s 186-game SEC streak was in as much peril as maybe ever. But a Lion service error halted the 3-0 run and put M-C ahead 14-13. It was SG’s second service error late. And after a volley where SG was on their heels, M-C finally got a good set to their closer. Soiney slammed the final point off a Lion defender and the gym’s back wall. M-C survived 3-2 (25-20, 25-15, 22-25, 22-25, 15-13)! Offensively, Soiney (26 kills on .392 hitting, 3.5 blks) and Slafter (22 kills on .405 hitting, 14 digs) led the way with season-high kill totals. Setter Sahara Morken (53 assists, 21 digs, 22-23 serving, 3 aces) worked hard fetching passes. It was her second 50-assist match of the year (both against SG).

Kailey Ingvalson (6 kills, 12 digs), Tylar Wenthold (5 kills), and Lydia Vatland (11 digs) helped. SG was led by Neeley (20 kills, 17 digs) and Kendal VanMinsel (3 kills, 49 assists, 7 digs, 2.5 blks, 4 aces). Halverson was strong on “O” (19 kills on 33% hitting). Kaufman (14 digs, 18-19 serving), Sydney Holland (13 digs), Kraus (8 digs, 4 total blks), and Hailey Normann (6 kills) helped. M-C had five aces in games one and two, one thereafter. SG had one ace in games one and two, seven thereafter. SG had 46 total errors to M-C’s 33 including 28 hitting errors to M-C’s 17. M-C took this year’s first meeting 3-1. The Cougars subsequently dispatched with Glenville-Emmons 3-0 (25-8, 25-5, 25-8). Soiney (18 kills, 2.5 blks), Morken (36 assists, 7 digs, 17-18 serving, 3 aces), Ingvalson (9 kills), Slafter (8 kills, 6 digs), Vatland (7 digs, 18-18 serving, 3 aces) and Wenthold (7 kills) did work. SG took out Kingsland 3-0 (See SEC Volleyball). M-C (11-0, 27-1) has a two-game lead over the Lions (8-2, 14-5) in the SEC-East. The streak is 187.