Push comes to shove for Mustangs

By DAVE CLARK

Journal Sports Writer

WINTHROP -- The Buffalo Lake-Hector Mustangs volleyball team had enough push to shove the Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Thunderbirds away in three straight games Tuesday night, 25-18, 25-22, 25-23.

"They have that push when they need to have that push," said GFW coach Bob Kaukola. "In the second game, we're up 22-21 and they get four points."

Push or no push, BLH coach Susan Alstrom was happy to leave with the win. "It felt a lot closer," said Alstrom. "We have a senior group with senior desire. We missed some serves at key times. With rally scoring, the question is 'Can you make four points before you make ten mistakes?'"

The Thunderbirds never had a lead in game one, but did tie the Mustangs seven times in the early going before the Mustangs went on a 10-2 run behind kills from Leah Ashburn and Kayla Ilgen and seven unforced errors by GFW.

A tip kill by Ashley Busch brought the Thunderbirds to within five at 22-17, but two kills by BLH's Leah Burgstahler and a GFW ball hit into the net gave the Mustangs the 25-18 win.

The Thunderbirds got their first lead of the night in game two at 4-3 and eventually led 9-5 on an ace by Alisha Kruggel, but the Mustangs came back immediately on four more GFW errors to knot the game again at 9-9.

It was tied 14-14 when BLH had their first push of the game, going on a 7-3 run that made it 21-17 in favor of the Mustangs.

Kaukola called time out and it was time for the Thunderbirds to take over, scoring the next five points on two mistakes by BLH, a kill by Emily VanHon and two kills by Ashley Vorwerk.

But as Kaukola mentioned, it was the Mustangs game as kills from Burgstahler and Monica Ashburn plus two errors by GFW gave BLH a 2-0 lead.

The two straight defeats didn't seem to faze the Thunderbirds in the early going of game three as they ran off to an energetic 8-4 lead that included two kills by VanHon. This meant it was time for another Mustangs push.

Six straight points later, they were up 10-8. After another Thunderbirds time out, GFW recovered and suddenly it was tied at 12-12. A kill by BLH's Kristen Raitz began another Mustangs gallop, this time taking a 21-15 margin.

The Thunderbirds put up a last stand behind two straight kills by Nicole Black and an ace by Vorwerk. When the Mustangs hit the ball into the net three plays later, they led GFW 22-21 and followed with two tip kills by Leah Ashburn and Burgstahler that made it 24-21.

A miscue by the Mustangs and a kill by Busch followed to cut the BLH lead to 24-23, but a final kill by Monica Ashburn put it in the record books as a Mustangs sweep.

"Leah Ashburn had a good game. The first six balls she touched were all kills. Monica Ashburn has been serving good all year and Burgstahler also played well," said Alstrom.

"I thought we played good defense," said Kaukola. "We did things pretty well. We really played with effort tonight."

Leading the Mustangs offensively was Leah Ashburn with 11 kills, with Burgstahler adding nine. Monica Ashburn had 31 set assists, while leah Ashburn was 18-for-18 from the service line with two aces.

For GFW, Van Hon had nine kills, followed by Vorwerk with eight and Kruggel with five. Lindsey Kiecker had 27 set assists, while Kruggel had 12 digs and Vorwerk had five digs. Black had two blocks and four kills and Busch had one block and five kills.

BLH moves to 10-1 while GFW drops to 6-4. GFW hosts Minnesota Valley Lutheran at 7 p.m. Thursday, while BLH hosts Sleepy Eye St. Mary's in Hector, also at 7 p.m.