Taylor Klabunde goes for the kill in Blue Earth Area’s volleyball game against Waseca last Thursday. The Bluejays would down the Bucs 25-18, 25-21, 25-14.

It is bad enough to have to battle COVID-19 to get scheduled volleyball games played. Now, the weather is also causing trouble for area sports teams.

After having to postpone a game earlier in the week because of a winter snow storm, the Bucs were able to host the Waseca Bluejays in a Big South Conference match on Thursday evening, Nov. 12.

Though the Bucs fought hard, it was the Bluejays who went home with the 3-0 victory. The scores of the games were 25-18, 25-21 and 25-14.

BEA was without Eloise Blair and Alicia Machacek for the evening but still gave the Jays a good battle.

The first game was tied 4-4 before Waseca went on a five-point run to open up a 9-4 lead.

The determined Bucs came back with three straight points to cut the Bluejays lead to two points.

Waseca stretched their lead to five points at 16-11 but the Maroon and Gold kept working and pulled to within three points with the visitors holding a 17-14 advantage.

The Bluejays went on to outscore the Bucs 8-4 to close out the game and win 25-18.

Game two was the closest of the evening and featured 14 tie scores and seven lead changes.

The last tie score of the contest came at 21-21 and neither team had a lead larger than two points prior to that.

Unfortunately for BEA, Waseca scored the final four points of the game to claim a 25-21 triumph.

The Bucs had a 4-3 lead in game three before the Bluejays rattled off 10 points to go on top 13-4. BEA narrowed the gap to five points twice but could not pull any closer and Waseca went on to win the final game 25-14.

“We showed a lot of fight tonight,” head coach Donna Nawrocki said after the game. “We had some communication problems in the first game but did better the second game.”

Leading the way at the net were Brita Hougen with six kills, Taylor Klabunde with four and Emma Langager with three.

Liz Beeler led the team with 15 set assists and with 12 digs.

Taylor Klabunde chipped in with 10 digs while Miya Gustafson added eight.

Gustafson led the team at the service line with seven points while connecting on 10 of 12 serves. She had two aces. Hougen added four points on 10 of 11 serving and Beeler was credited with three points and one ace on 8 of 9 servings.

The Bucs record stands at 1-5. They are scheduled to travel to New Ulm on Nov. 17 to take on the Eagles.