MVL wins in threeTeam effort enough to stop CHS

By JEN SEAVEY

Journal Sports Editor

NEW ULM -- Play between New Ulm Cathedral and Minnesota Valley Lutheran in the first game promised tough competition and razor thin margins all night, but the Chargers took the lead, winning 26-24, 25-17 and 25-21 in Tomahawk volleyball action Thursday.

The first game was close all along, with a six point Cathedral lead being the largest spread in the game. After it was tied 8-8, Cathedral pulled ahead with the help of two ace serves by Angela Long. They widened the spread with ace hits by Toni Hall and Long and mistakes by MVL to lead 20-14. But MVL came back to tie the game at 20, Cathedral pulled ahead, then the Chargers put the game away 26-24 with a hard-hit Kelsey Black kill and a Cathedral mistake.

"It was very fun; in the first game, we were ready for them," Cathedral's Nikki Fischer said. "We had the energy in the first game."

"They dug so many out of the net, and they hustled and played as a team," MVL's Nicki Flygare said. "They were just digging away and scrappy. It was fun to see and volley with."

In the second game, MVL came out with the first seven points -- four of them Cathedral errors and three of them kills by Black.

"Shutting down [Kelsey] Black was key in the first game," Fischer said. "In the second game, she came around and started hitting more on us, and that's what we weren't able to stop."

The Greyhounds were not able to keep Black off her game, and she ended up with 13 kills, five digs and12 service points with two aces.

"Kelsey has a lot of power -- she's just unstoppable," Flygare said. "But we all just took our turn; spreading it around was the key to the win."

Flygare ended the evening with 12 kills, seven digs and seven points with one service ace, and Jessica Beckendorf had eight kills and a block.

"Team work is the key to our team," Flygare said, adding that the combination of Black, Flygare and Beckendorf is good for the team. "If one of us gets it, then someone else gets a turn the next time. God has just blessed us with so much height."

Another player who pulled down some big kills was sophomore Karissa Kramer, who had five kills, eight digs and two ace serves.

"Karissa has just come along so much," Flygare said. "She just gets up and whacks away -- she's got a lot of potential."

MVL stayed ahead the rest of the second game, even though the Greyhounds made a late push thanks to Charger errors. But MVL took Game 2 on a huge kill by Eva Voss, 25-17. Voss finished the day with four kills and four blocks.

Cathedral's game was off for the majority of the second game.

"I don't know what it was," Fischer said. "Maybe it was coming down from the first loss, so in the second game it took us a while to get going."

Flygare said that MVL also picked it up in the second game.

"We started out kind of sluggish, but we picked it up," said Flygare. "We didn't want to lose on our home court in our second to last home game."

Once again, the Chargers pulled ahead to lead the Greyhounds by several points throughout the third game. But after Black served long to give the ball to Cathedral. Cathedral made five straight points on ace hits by Melissa Kraus and Holly Helget, a Chelsey Hillesheim ace serve and Charger errors, but Flygare wrapped up the 25-21 win with an ace hit.

Kraus had three ace hits and 10 service points. Hillesheim had six points.

"We knew we had to come back and get that last game because we wanted to play to five games," Fischer said.

Fischer ended the day with 18 set assists.

For the Chargers, Enter had 13 set assists and nine service points. Katie Dolan had 11 set assists and Andrea Ring had 10.

Cathedral (2-4, 6-8) plays at Springfield Monday. MVL (6-1, 12-1-1) hosts Sleepy Eye Tuesday.