Sydney Ristau

The stage was set for the dramatic comeback on Tuesday night.

After dropping the first two games of their volleyball match to the visiting Waseca Bluejays, the Bucs had battled back to take games three and four to set up the fifth and deciding game.

Game five saw the teams battle back and forth before Waseca gained the upper hand and was serving for the match point with a 14-13 lead.

A Kate Hassing kill brought the game back to a tie and gave the Bucs the serve. Ashley Olson’s spike gave the Bucs the lead and the chance to put the game away with a storybook ending.

However, somebody forgot to give the Bluejays the script.

Morgan Dickman

The visitors rebounded to take three straight points for the 17-15 victory and hand the Bucs their first conference loss.

Give the Bluejays credit. They came ready to play and obviously were very focused on upsetting the South Central Conference first place Bucs.

Clearly the Bucs were not on top of their game, as evidenced by their serving.

The normally reliable and efficient maroon and gold suffered from more bad serves than any game this year. They pounded too many serves into the net or launched them past the opponents’ end line.

Game number one started close, as it was tied at 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

After that, Waseca pulled away to take a 23-15 lead before the Bucs mounted a comeback.

Aided by Morgan Dickman’s three straight service aces, the Bucs closed the gap to three points at 23-20, but fell short as Waseca claimed the first game 25-20.

The Bucs appeared to right the ship in game two as they jumped to an early 4-0 lead, before falling behind 10-8.

The home team would come back and seemed to be on a roll as they took a 17-13 lead. A time out by the Bluejays halted the Bucs’ momentum.

The ‘Jays scored seven consecutive points, claiming a 20-17 advantage on their way to a 25-19 win.

With the hole sufficiently dug, the Bucs began the long climb out.

Two kills by Jenny Smith and two blocks by Katie Krieger set the tone early, as Blue Earth Area bolted to a 4-0 lead. They led all game on their way to a 25-17 victory.

To read more of this story, see this week’s Register.