The members of the 1998 team are pictured above at Williams Arena. They are, front row, left to right, Erin Haase, Stacy Caldwell, Stacey Benson, Kate Cahill, Christine Loge, Amy Frandle. Back row, left to right, coach Brenda Smith, Brooke Ziegler, Megan Blom, Mindy Mair, Janell Bly, Mandy Lloyd, Katy Evans. The 1998 BEA volleyball team, only seeded fourth in their Sub-section, went on to qualify for the Minnesota State High School Volleyball Tournament. They remain the only Buccaneer volleyball team to go to State.

They were a “Cinderella” story 25 years ago. They may also have been known as the “cardiac” kids. And they remain the only Buccaneer volleyball team to ever qualify for the Minnesota State Volleyball Tournament.

On Thursday, Oct. 12, many members of that team will be reuniting in honor of the 25th anniversary of their State appearance.

How that team made it to State is really an amazing story.

It was the fall of 1998. The Blue Earth Area volleyball team was preparing for the Sub-Section 6A volleyball playoffs.

The Bucs had just placed third in an Invitational Tournament by beating St. Peter in a three-game sweep. With the victory, the Bucs ended their regular season with a 16-9 record and were the fourth-seeded team heading into the Sub-sections.

The game of volleyball was different back then. Rally scoring was not used in 1998. Teams could only score when they were serving and games were only played to 15 points. Matches were three-out-of-five.

The Bucs opened the sub-sections against No. 5-seeded Martin County West with a 17-15, 15-9, 15-10 victory.

Their victory over MCW advanced BEA to the next round of the playoffs where they would face the No. 1-seeded Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin.

They dispatched the No. 1-seeded team in four games. Next up for the Bucs, a rematch against the St. James Saints.

“They had beaten us three games to two during the regular season,” Brenda Smith, the coach of the 1998 team says. “They were close games, but the Saints won.”

It certainly looked like the Saints were going to march home with the Section championship when they won the first two games 15-11 and 15-6 and took a 7-4 lead in the third game.

Somehow the Bucs righted their ship and Janell Bly’s kill gave the Bucs a 15-9 victory in the third game and advanced the team into the fourth game.

An article about the match from the Faribault County Register told about some of the action in the fourth game.

Mandy Lloyd’s vicious kill gave BEA the ball back and Christine Loge took advantage, serving for five more points, highlighted by another Lloyd thunder spike.

The Bucs won the fifth and deciding game 15-11.

BEA’s win over the Saints sent them to the Section playoffs along with three other Sub-section champions. The other teams were Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop, with a record of 25-3-1, United South Central, with a record of 23-2 and Belle Plaine, with a record of 24-4.

BEA faced GFW in the opening round and found themselves trailing 9-3 before losing 15-6.

The second game did not go much better and the Bucs were soon on the wrong end of a 6-1 score. They went on to lose 15-5.

GFW, perhaps over-confident at this point, began the third game with many of their non-starters on the floor.

The Bucs made the most of the situation and opened up a 5-1 lead. The T-Birds tied the game at 5-5 but the Bucs stormed out front 12-7. Moments later Mindy Mair served the winning point.

GFW’s starters were back for the fourth game but BEA was able to take an 8-7 lead. The Bucs increased their lead to 9-7 on an ace serve by Brooke Ziegler.

GFW rallied to take a 12-10 lead but BEA battled back to tie the game at 12-12. GFW took a 13-12 lead but an ace block by Kate Cahill tied the game 13-13.

A kill by Lloyd finally ended the game with the Bucs winning 17-15.

BEA now had the momentum and won the deciding fifth game 15-10.

Smith, who was in her 11th year at the helm of the Bucs, said she had a simple message for her team during the many timeouts which were called during the match: “I told the girls to get the ball to the setter and reminded them we are here to win.”

BEA’s opponent for the chance to go to State was the Belle Plaine Tigers.

This time there would be no five-game thriller. Instead, the Bucs won the match in three straight games, 15-10, 15-13, 15-7.

“Maybe we got tired of playing five games,” Smith says with a laugh.

BEA’s first game at State was against Mora at Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus.

“It was such a great atmosphere,” Mandy (Lloyd) Fletcher, now the superintendent at BEA, recalls. “There were so many people cheering us on.”

The Bucs opened the State Tourney with a 15-9, 15-5, 15-10 triumph over Mora.

Their next opponent, Central Minnesota Christian-Prinsburg, was the runner-up at State the previous year.

“They were tall and powerful,” Smith remembers. “They were really good.”

Central Minnesota Christian, who would go on to win the State Championship, ended the Bucs’ season with a 15-2, 15-6, 15-2 victory.

In the contest for fourth place, BEA fell to Stewartville in three games.

“The 1998 BEA team had loads of tenacity, a lot of grit and were very competitive,” Smith says. “They did not like to lose.”

Smith explained it hadn’t always been that way for the BEA volleyball program.

“In the early years of the volleyball program, we struggled to win games. We did not have a reputation of winning.”

She notes that began to change in 1992.

“We had a good team,” she says. “We started playing better and went deeper into the playoffs.”

Smith is quick to credit two people, Lenne Holland and Terry Cahill, for developing the skills of the young players.

“They (Holland and Cahill) spent a great deal of time with the girls,” Smith comments. “They taught them so much. I also had a good assistant coach in Dar Holmseth.”

Smith and Fletcher both offered their thoughts on why the team was so successful at the end of the 1998 season.

“They had tons of skill,” Smith says. “It was just a matter of finding the right combination of players and developing the right mindset to be a team.”

“It seemed like we just clicked,” Fletcher added. “We found our groove and everybody on the team contributed. Everyone had their own unique talent.”

The members of the team have continued to be successful after their years at BEA.

“I was looking at the list of people who were on the team and what they are doing now,” Smith says. “There is an orthopedic surgeon, a superintendent, a principal, a lawyer, an accountant, a teacher, a physician assistant and a surgical technician. One of them is a national sales manager for a company and one owns an event staffing agency.”

The team and their former coach are meeting before the BEA volleyball game against MCW on Oct. 12, and then plan on attending the game together.

“This will be our first reunion,” Smith notes. “It looks like many members of the team will make it.”

Fletcher is looking forward to seeing her former teammates.

“It was a great experience,” she says. “I had no idea how a sport could bring a community together. It is something I will never forget.”