Knights take close four-set win over Jaguars

Staff photo by Ari Selvey
St. Marys’ Ella Pollard (11) and Kailey Nelson (14) go up for a block against Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther’s Londyn Bowers (7) during a Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover volleyball match Tuesday at St. Mary’s High School.

SLEEPY EYE — Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s looked connected throughout a 25-17, 21-25, 25-22, 25-23 win over Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther in a Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover volleyball match on Tuesday.

St. Mary’s was able to mix up looks at the net consistently, setting long, quick and back throughout the match to keep the Jaguars’ blockers guessing.

“I thought we did a good job of that, especially in Game 1,” St. Mary’s head coach Kari Hoffmann said. “We work on that a lot in practice, so I think that’s showing that it’s being worked on in practice. They’re doing a good job of getting up there and blocking. Hopefully that’s something we can continue with.”

GHEC/T/ML head coach T.J. Williams was also impressed with St. Marys’ front line, noting that the Jaguars hadn’t seen something like St. Mary’s was presenting in a while.

“They do a lot of movement on the net that we don’t see a lot in our conference,” Williams said. “It’s kind of hard when blockers are going in every direction, trying to find someone to block. We did all right, but it’s something that we still need to work on.”

Williams added that the Jaguars found themselves on the wrong end of a few too many errors on the game, costing them the win.

“Tonight we had more that what we normally end up with,” he said. “But volleyball is a game of errors. Whoever commits the least comes out the victor, and I had a feeling that less than we did.”

Kailey Nelson led the Knights in kills in the match, putting up nine of them, while Morgan Mathiowetz had eight kills, 13 digs and four aces. Josie Helget had 17 set assists and eight digs, while Natalie Fischer had 15 digs and four aces. Brynne Ibberson had 12 set assists.

For GHEC/T/ML, Londyn Bowers had 11 kills and two blocks, while Madisen Lewis had three kills and a block. Keira Benck and Taelyn Dengler each had three kills.

Nelson helped St. Mary’s get out to a early 7-3 lead in Set 1 with a block. The Jaguars struggled to get over the Knights blocking in the set, and Nelson was on the receiving end of several quick sets for strong kills.

“We work really hard in practice and put all our hard work in, and then bring it out on the court,” Nelson said. “We just go over it on the court, do our best and keep the hard work going.”

A spike by Nelson put St. Mary’s up 14-8, and the teams would play it evenly for the rest of the set, with St. Mary’s winning on a block by Amelia Schwartz.

The Jaguars got out to an early lead in Set 2, taking a 8-3 advantage on a kill by Norah Chase. St. Mary’s took a timeout, but GHEC/T/ML maintained an 18-11 lead. After a long point, Reese Hoffmann got a kill to start a 9-2 run to tie the game up. However, the Jaguars held on with a kill by Bowers to take the 25-21 win.

The two teams were at a stalemate early in Set 3, with St. Mary’s holding on to a 11-9 lead before GHEC/T/ML went on a 4-0 run to take a 13-11 lead.

During the run, Ibberson, St. Marys’ setter, was struck hard in the face with a ball and had to leave the game. Despite the injury, St. Mary’s battled through, getting a tight 25-22 win on a strong kill by Mathiowetz.

“I think they were playing for our girl that was hurt in a way, too,” coach Hoffmann said. “They wanted to win for her because they felt really bad about what happened. They were able to push through because they felt so bad about what had happened.”

Set 4 saw St. Mary’s slowly climb out to a 14-8 advantage, with a block by Amelia Schwartz and a kill by Nelson setting up the lead. The Jaguars called a timeout and rallied back, tying the game at 20 with a pair of blocks from Kayla Mattson and Bowers. Fischer made a key dig on the next point, a long battle that ended in a Jaguar error, GHEC/T/ML took the lead on another block, this time from Addison Nowicki, before St. Mary’s called a timeout with the score at 22-21. St. Mary’s was able to take 4 of the next 5 points, with Maria Schwartz getting a kill to help seal the 25-23 victory.

St. Mary’s (10-4) travels to Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop on Thursday, while GHEC/T/ML (11-5) hosts Mankato Loyola on Thursday.