BEA’s Taylor Klabunde stretches to prevent a St. James kill shot from reaching the floor in the Bucs’ three-game sweep of the Saints.

Blue Earth Area volleyball coach Donna Nawrocki made a slight adjustment to her line-up ahead of her team’s contest with St. James on Tuesday, Sept. 20.

“We just switched Eloise (Blair) and Kate (Armon) and moved Eloise into the libero position,” Nawrocki explained. “It is a position Eloise has played in the past and she excels in that role.”

Whether it was because of the change or for other reasons, the Bucs came to play and swept the St. James Saints 25-22, 25-22, 25-17.

“We had a slow start tonight but I knew they could pick it up,” Nawrocki commented. “It was good to be in front of our home crowd.”

The Bucs fell behind early in the first set when the Saints jumped out to a 5-1 lead.

St. James extended their lead to eight points at 14-6 before the BEA offense started to click and the Saints’ lead began to disappear.

After a side out gave the Bucs their seventh point, Haley Kalis stepped up to the service line and delivered three points, including an ace, before a side out gave the Saints the ball and a 15-10 lead.

A net violation on the Saints gave the Bucs their 11th point with Taylor Klabunde up next to serve.

Two Alicia Machacek kills sandwiched around an ace serve cut the Saints’ lead to 15-14 and caused St. James to call a time out.

A violation by the Saints and another ace serve gave the Bucs their first lead of the set at 16-15.

St. James tied the set at 16-16 and the teams were tied again at 18-18 before a long serve out of bounds by the Saints gave the Bucs the lead for good.

Leading 23-22, Machacek’s perfect placement of a return pushed the score to match point and brought Klabunde back to the line.

The Saints were not able to handle the outside hitter’s serve and the Bucs took the first set 25-22.

The second set followed a similar pattern as the opening set with the Bucs falling behind by six points at 7-1.

And just like the first set, BEA did not take their first lead until Kylee Eckmann’s block broke a 16-16 tie and gave the Maroon and Gold a 17-16 lead.

The two teams tied at 18-18, 19-19, 20-20, 21-21 and 22-22 before a block by Machacek put the Bucs on top to stay.

Leading 23-22, the Saints sent a kill shot flying out of bounds to bring the Bucs to within one point of the victory at 24-22.

BEA scored the winning point on a wild volley which saw both teams make some great plays to keep the volley alive. The Bucs finally scored when a return by Klabunde climbed over the net before falling to the Saints’ side of the floor for the winning point.

BEA grabbed a 2-0 lead in the final set when the St. James players had trouble receiving the serves from Kalis.

The Saints recovered and were leading 11-9 before the Bucs rattled off five straight points for a 14-11 BEA lead.

The Bucs eventually pulled away for the eight-point, 25-17 victory.

Blair led the defense with 15 digs followed by Klabunde with six, and Kalis and Hailey Becker with four each.

Machacek and Becker each recorded two ace blocks while Eckmann was credited with one.

On offense, Kalis led BEA with 15 set assists while Rylan Storbeck added five.

The Bucs had balanced production at the net. Machacek recorded seven kills, Becker and Eckmann each had six, Berkley Hagedorn added four while Klabunde and Armon each had three.

Leading servers for BEA were Klabunde with 10 service points on 15 for 16 serving. She had two aces.

Kalis was 14 for 15 serving for nine points. She also had two aces.

Blair hit all 10 of her serves. She had one ace while being credited with seven points.

Storbeck entered the contest in the third set and was five for five serving for three points.

With the win, the Bucs improve their overall record to 2-4 and their conference record to 2-3.