Knights top Chargers in marathon match

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Although the playoffs officially don't begin until the last week of October, the playoff atmosphere started a month early at the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Gym Thursday night.

With both MVL and Sleepy Eye St. Mary's having homecoming this week, and both teams coming off big wins Tuesday, fans witnessed one of the better matches of the year as St. Mary's slipped by the Chargers 25-21, 29-31, 25-20, 21-25, 15-13 in Tomahawk Conference volleyball action.

"Oh, this is big," St. Mary's hitter Krista Armbruster said. "We had a big win against Wabasso the other night, so we were kinda coming off that. And it's homecoming week too, which pumped us up, and we just play big now."

Armbruster had a big all-around effort for the Knights. The senior had 18 kills, 10 digs, four ace blocks, four blocks, and five service points.

Nikki Flygare led the Chargers with 15 kills and 11 digs. She said the fans made it fun for the teams. She also said St. Mary's is an up-and-coming team.

"It's homecoming, and we just wanted to go out and play MVL ball," Flygare said. "Both sides were scrappy, and we were just hitting it at each other, and that's what volleyball is all about. They're awesome, they're coming around."

In the fifth game, Jamie Lilleodden's tip over two MVL blockers found a bare spot on the floor and ended the marathon match.

"This is awesome, because we had two big games this week," Lilleodden said. "We came in the last game confident, which gives us confidence for this one."

Lilleodden, who had 20 set assists and 10 digs, said her team's confidence is rising with wins over Wabasso and MVL this week, not to mention they are getting back some injured players.

"Yes, we finally got it down," Lilleodden said. "We finally got our players together."

MVL went up 4-3 on Bri Czer's kill in the first game, but the Knights went up 16-9 on Armbruster's block and the Knights won 25-21. Czer had 11 kills.

"We knew that they were playing pretty confident and we couldn't just disregard them as a different team," MVL setter Andrea Ring said. "We had to come out and play really strong. We were excited, and we were really ready to play. We just battled a lot -- it was a good match."

Ring finished with 21 set assists, three digs, and three service aces. Angie Ristow also helped the MVL passing game with 19 assists.

MVL took Game 2, but St. Mary's made the Chargers work for every point. The teams were close the entire game, and it finally ended when Molly Mathiowetz hit the ball into the net, giving the Chargers a 31-29 win.

St. Mary's won the third game 25-20 and went up 2-1, but the Chargers weren't done quite yet and went ahead 8-1 thanks to Danielle Kramer's ace serve. Czer then hammered a pair of kills to the back service line, spotting the Chargers an 11-4 lead.

"She just stepped it up," Flygare said. "She stepped up and just hit line -- it was really important."

St. Mary's did however, cut the deficit and took a 16-15 lead on a net violation. The lead was short-lived, and the Chargers eventually got back on top and won 25-21.

"Everybody on both sides really wanted to get this match," Ring said. "We wanted to be determined to come out with the win, but we didn't."

"Our passing just wasn't there," Armbruster said of the fourth game. "We have good passing, which has been our strength this year. I don't know, we just didn't have that much adrenaline, and then the next game, we got it going."

Serving proved to be achilles heel for MVL in Game 5 as the Chargers had three straight serving errors in the middle of the game, giving St. Mary's a 9-5 lead. MVL clawed back and trailed 14-13 when Lilleodden's tip ended the match.

"This is definitely one we'll learn from, because we all tried really really hard, and we battled," Ring said.

Flygare agreed with her teammate.

"There's no reason to hang your head -- this was a good game," Flygare said. "I mean, we came back, and then they kinda came back. We just had a lot of fun."

For the Knights, Mathiowetz had 14 service points, three aces, 15 digs, and 12 kills. She also had six ace blocks and three ace tips. Laura Huiras had 15 set assists, 10 digs, 13 service points, and one ace serve. Stephanie Krzmarzick had 10 kills, 20 digs, and nine service points.

For MVL, Eva Voss had nine kills and five digs and Karissa Kramer had 11 kills and eight digs. Laura Hunter had six kills and Stephanie Reagles had four ace serves.

MVL (8-6, 4-3) is at New Ulm Cathedral Tuesday and St. Mary's (7-5, 4-3) is at Comfrey Monday.