MLC pounds Minn.-Morris

By PAUL DUNLAP

Journal Sports Editor

NEW ULM -- The Martin Luther Knights improved to 8-2 on the season Tuesday night, sweeping Minnesota-Morris 15-11, 15-5, 15-8 in nonconference volleyball.

"Overall, I was real happy," MLC coach Drew Buck said. "We kept the ball in play, and a lot of times that's half the battle. Keep it in play long enough for them to make a mistake. (Morris) misplayed some balls, then finally gave us a chance to get some swings."

MLC came busting out of the gate with the first five points of game one, and eventually pushed that edge to 9-2 on four straight service points from Lisa Gawrisch. The Cougars made a battle of it, scoring six of seven points late to pull within 14-11, but a Jenny Nommensen service points closed out the win for MLC. Kelly Gawrisch ended that opening game with two ace blocks, one kill, and one ace tip.

"(Morris) is a strong hitting team if they can get their pass going," Buck said. "One thing we felt we had to do is not give them a lot of free balls where they can get in to their quick attack. For while in that first game that's exactly what happened, and they were able to pinpoint some quicks. We just had to knuckle down and make sure the pass was there."

Game two wasn't quite as tight as the Knights once again jumped out to a 5-0 lead. Morris was able to pull within 8-5 on a Vanessa Gibson point serve, but MLC answered with the final seven points of the game -- two coming on Rachel Kramer ace blocks -- for the 2-0 game edge.

"We came out strong in that game," Buck said. "It was a little bit slow in the middle there for awhile, but then we took off.

"I was a little leery going in to game three because games one and two were almost too easy. With that team, we can't afford to think that; we just needed to keep the pressure on."

The Cougars bounce dback, taking their first lead of the match at 5-4 on a Gibson ace serve. Kills from Emily Hahnke and Kelly Gawrisch drew MLC even, only to see kills from Katrina Wohlrabe and Amy Jesnowski put Morris back in front at 8-6.

Those were the last points UMM scored as the Knights reeled off nine straight points for the win. The serving of Liesse Luetzow and two kills from Kramer gave MLC a 10-8 lead, and a Kelly Gawrisch kill propelled the final five-point run. Melodie Ohm ended the match with another ace block.

"It was the simple things, the basic things," Buck said of his team's third-game comeback. "We'll take what we can get when we can get it, but we'll still have to work on some aspects of our game."

Luetzow finished the match with 14 service points, including three aces. Emily Hahnke contributed eight service points, 14 set assists, and 13 digs.

Lisa and Kelly Gawrisch each had eight kills, with Kelly adding three ace blocks and a team-high 16 digs, and Kramer led with six ace blocks. Nommensen had a team-high 16 set assists.

MLC (8-2) will travel to face Crown at 7 p.m. Thursday.