MVL rallies to

outlast Falcons

By BOB VARMETTE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Hey, did you notice those new uniforms for the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers?

The color scheme and design makes it kind of hard to read the numbers. It makes it kind of hard to tell the Chargers apart.

Well, except for Kelsey Black.

Black made sure everyone noticed her. The 5-foot-8 sophomore middle hitter erupted for 12 kills in the final three games, and the Chargers blew up with her, rallying from a two-game deficit to decision the McLeod West Falcons 13-15, 14-16, 15-1, 15-7, 15-3 in Tomahawk Conference volleyball Thursday night.

"I started real slow, I don't know what it was," said Black, who finished with a match-high 17 kills. "But then we got things going and I got a lot of confidence from my teammates."

And the first-year varsity player was worried that her new teammates might not like her.

"I was," she said. "I thought some of them might not like me because I took one of their spots. But we're great friends, they've been awesome. We've actually been playing together for a long time, since we were in seventh- and eighth-grade."

MVL (2-1, 1-0 Tomahawk) was every bit the experienced team in the final three games, but in the first two games the Chargers at times looked as if they'd never met before Thursday night.

"It was quite a turnaround," MVL coach Ron Ohm said. "It's hard to say why. I think it was that they were not going to give this thing up. We believed in ourselves. We believed in our hitting."

McLeod West coach Mary Lemke wasn't sure of the reason either for the astonishing difference between the first two games and the final three games. But she was sure of what the result was.

"In the first two games, we were very offensive," she said. "We were very aggressive. We went to the ball. This kind of happened in our first match. We just sit back and let things happen."

Sophomore Amanda Peterson led the Falcons with nine kills. Seniors Steph Todd and Kristen Schlueter each added seven kills for McLeod West.

Laura Loncorich recorded 26 set assists for the Falcons.

Perhaps Ohm's words lend a clue. The Chargers, not a terribly solid defensive team, annihilated McLeod West (0-2, 0-1) at the net.

MVL's hitters in the final three games pounded the Falcons into submission. In addition to Black, two other Chargers finished with double-digit kills -- junior Emily Buck with 12 and junior Danielle Kramer with 11.

After the Falcons outlasted the Chargers in two close games, Black and Buck led the MVL turnaround. Black got MVL's first point in the third game with a block of Schlueter and the Chargers were never headed.

Black got back-to-back kills late in the game -- one for a side out and the second a booming inside-out rocket to the back right of the Falcons' defense for a 14-1 MVL lead that set up Kramer's kill that got the Chargers their first game.

Black started the fourth game with another inside-out kill to the Falcons' back row. Black picked up four more kills in the game and Buck added four kills, including consecutive soft kills that gave MVL a 5-2 margin that would never be threatened.

The Chargers went up 7-0 on McLeod West in the fifth game with a seven-point run on the serve of Karina Harstad, including a pair of kills from senior Leah Morgan. MVL then went on cruise control as Morgan pounded three more kills, finishing with eight in the match.

The Chargers do believe in their hitting. The rest will come along, Ohm said.

"I was concerned going into the match," Ohm said. "I think we can be competitive, and if how we do it is with power hitting, so be it. We'll work on the rest. We'll teach the girls to hustle to every ball. That's how I'm trying to build defense at this point."

Both McLeod West and Minnesota Valley Lutheran will play in the Sleepy Eye High tournament Saturday.