Merseth

leads MVL

by Knights

By PAUL DUNLAP

Journal Sports Editor

ST. PETER -- The Minnesota Valley Lutheran girls basketball team was going to be Section 2-1A, North Subsection champions.

Jessica Merseth made sure of it.

Merseth scored 17 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and also added five steals Monday, leading the Chargers to a 48-31 victory over Sleepy Eye St. Mary's at Gustavus Adolphus' Gus Young Court.

MVL (22-3) will face Springfield (23-2) at 5 p.m. Friday at MSU-Mankato's Taylor Center for the Section 2-1A title. The Knights end their season with a 13-12 mark.

"We knew St. Mary's would come out with all they had," Merseth said. "We just wanted to match their intensity, and hopefully exceed it. They're a good rebounding team, and in preparation for this game we worked on defensive and offensive rebounding. That seemed to help."

"I think she did a great job," MVL head coach Dave Biedenbender said of Merseth. "Number one she's still battling sickness, so wind-wise she wasn't really with it. She's just a warrior out there, got a lot of offensive rebounds, and finished well. She gets involved on both ends of the floor."

The Knights would not score for over five minutes at the beginning of the game, and Merseth took control early as she scored the first five points. Ashley Mathiowetz and Shelley Eckstein would hit 3-pointers as St. Mary's pulled within 9-6, but the 5-foot-11 sophomore post scored nine points in the first as the Chargers held an 11-6 lead after one.

"She's a very good player," St. Mary's coach Bruce Woitas said. "We didn't neutralize her very well. Defensively we played with them I thought, but offensively we couldn't get anything going. That's a credit to MVL's defense."

That lead would grow to 17-8 on two more Merseth buckets, and her putback along with a Leah Morgan steal and layup countered another Mathiowetz trey as the Chargers held a 21-13 lead at half. Merseth ended the first 16 minutes with 15 points and 11 boards.

"I just try to find the open gaps and go where they're not," Merseth said. "Hopefully I can sneak in there and get the ball."

Mathiowetz tried to keep her team in it as she hit another 3-pointer followed by a jumper that got the Knights within 27-20 midway through the third. Danielle Kramer would be the spark the Chargers were looking for as she scored seven straight MVL points -- the final five spurring a 16-0 run through the end of the third and beginning of the fourth quarter. By the time SESM's Steph Moldan hit a jumper with 6:32 left, the Charger lead was 43-20.

"She was quiet in the first half, but then had a big third quarter for us," Biedenbender said of Kramer. "Her defense and transition game helped us get some big hoops when we needed them."

Erin Czer, who finished with 11 points, hit a fast-break basket to make the score 48-24 before the benches on both sides were emptied. St. Mary's would score the final seven points of the game -- five from Ashley Meyer -- but the Chargers will move on to face Springfield.

"It will be a super-tough matchup," Biedenbender said of Friday's game against the Tigers. "We have to pick up our intensity even another notch if we want to play well and win. It will be a whale of a game."

Mathiowetz finished with 14 points to lead St. Mary's. Teammate Nicole Steffl added six points and nine rebounds.

"We're going to miss four special seniors who are leaving our program, but we also have some good kids coming back," Woitas said. "If they work hard, hopefully we can get ourselves back here again next year."

NOTE: St. Mary's guard Emily Schwartz injured her right knee early in the second quarter, and the status of her injury was not known at press time. It was the second apparently-serious knee injury of the night as Springfield center Terri Schrump also injured her right knee in the Tigers' win over Nicollet.

SESM 6 7 7 11--31

MVL 11 10 20 7--48

SESM (31): Mathiowetz 14, Steffl 6, Meyer 5, Eckstein 3, Moldan 2, Krenze 1.

MVL (48): Merseth 17, Czer 11, Kramer 7, Morgan 4, Unke 4, Dzwonkowski 3, Nelson 2.