MVL holds

off Madelia

By BOB VARMETTE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- The Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers again couldn't close out a team. But this time it was a little different.

This time it wasn't a lack of a killer instinct. This time it massive substitutions.

Subbing en masse at times, MVL dropped the third game after winning the first two, and then hung on in the fourth, taking a 15-7, 15-10, 12-15, 16-14 win over the Madelia Blackhawks in nonconference volleyball Monday night.

"I take part of the blame," MVL coach Lori Unke said. "I didn't let six people stay in there long enough. I substituted too freely. ... I thought tonight was the match that I could do it."

It was. But barely.

The Chargers' lack of offensive continuity cost them the third game, largely on their own errors. Thirteen of the Blackhawks points came on MVL errors.

That gave some needed confidence to Madelia (8-14-1).

"I don't know what happened in the first couple of games," Madelia coach Kris DeMaris said. "We weren't ourselves. We weren't communicating. I told the girls if we communicate we can play well."

Madelia jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the third game with each one of the nine points on MVL errors. The Chargers rallied to tie the game at 10-all, largely taking advantage of Blackhawk errors and violations.

Madelia took a 12-10 lead on back-to-back soft kills by Marissa Kelsey, who led the Blackhawks with nine kills, and then got an ace from Brooke Elkins for a 13-10 lead before Leah Morgan slammed a kill to the Blackhawks' middle for a side out.

MVL (11-9-3) closed to 13-12, but gave the ball back on a hitting error and Madelia closed out the game on two more Charger errors.

After the Blackhawks took a 5-2 lead in the fourth game, MVL scored 12 unanswered points to take a 14-5 lead. The Chargers ran off seven straight points on the serve of Alisha Majeski, getting three kills from Morgan, who led the Chargers with a match-high 17 kills.

Madelia then went on a run of its own. The Blackhawks scored seven straight points on the serve of Elkins with a pair of kills and a block from Kelsey to get within two at 14-12.

After trading sides out and giving the Blackhawks a pair of points on aces by Kim Nelson to tie the game at 14, MVL got a lift call and a Sarah Gronholz kill to the Blackhawks' middle to end the match.

"We did not play our best match," Unke said. "But give them credit. They were not letting the ball drop. They became very scrappy. They had the fighting spirit."

But even that couldn't, in the end, overcome the Blackhawks' own offensive woes. Kelsey, who had 28 kills Thursday against Maple River, and the rest of the Madelia hitters never got into attack mode due to the Blackhawks' problems in transition.

"It's hard to get kills when we can't get the passes to our setters to get good sets," DeMaris said. "I think MVL and we are comparable teams. All the games should've been like that fourth game, but we didn't start out playing well because of our passing."

Brittany Lehman led the Blackhawks with 12 set assists. Emily Buck led MVL with 24 set assists and Katie Hermanson added nine sets assists for the Chargers.

The Chargers had their own passing problems.

"In the third and fourth games, we didn't pass well," Unke said. "We had a good hitting night. We had very few errors, I think. But we had different combinations in there we weren't used to.

"The problem was not our hitting. We could get the ball down if the passing was there."

Madelia is idle until the start of Section 2-1A, East Subsection play when they will host Comfrey Oct. 26. MVL will host Sleepy Eye High tonight for Parents' Night.