BEA loses to LCWM, MCW in volleyball
The host Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial Knights swept the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers in non-conference volleyball action Monday night, Oct. 17. The scores were 25-13, 25-12 and 25-16. It was the final regular season contest for the Bucs who will begin sub-section play on Thursday, Oct. 27 against an opponent yet to be determined.
Taylor Klabunde and Berkley Hagedorn shared scoring honors for the Bucs with six points each. Klabunde was 11 of 11 at the service line with three aces while Hagedorn was 7 of 7 serving with one ace.
Eloise Blair led the defense with 15 digs. Klabunde and Kate Armon each finished with eight digs.
Haley Kalis was the leader for the Bucs in set assists with eight. Hailey Becker contributed three.
Kylee Eckmann and Armon led the Bucs at the net with four kills each. Beck and Klabunde each had three and Kyla Roiger tallied two.
Becker and Eckmann each had one ace block.
The Bucs end regular season play with a record of 9-15. The Knights, with one game left to go before the playoffs, have a record of 21-7.
MCW 3, BEA 1
In their last home contest of the regular season, the Blue Earth Area volleyball team played host to the Martin County West Mavericks.
The Bucs entered the match with a record of 9-13 while the Mavericks were 10-12.
The two squads were evenly matched but the Mavericks pulled out a 3-1 victory. The scores were 25-20, 25-23, 22-25, 25-16.
Set number one was a back and forth affair. When BEA’s Hailey Becker hit a kill shot to tie the score at 15-15, it marked the 10th time the two teams had been tied in the opening set.
However, MCW began to pull away at that point and scored five consecutive points to go on top 20-15. The Mavericks maintained their lead to triumph in the first set 25-20.
The Bucs came out on fire in the second set and quickly built a 10-2 lead.
MCW began to chip away at BEA’s advantage and had narrowed the margin to 10-7 before sending a serve out of bounds to give the ball back to the Bucs with an 11-7 lead.
The Mavericks eventually caught the Bucs and tied the set at 12-12.
With the score knotted at 15 apiece, MCW ran off four straight points to take a 19-15 lead.
The Mavericks would increase their advantage to 22-16 before the Bucs mounted a rally of their own.
Becker’s hit at the net found an open spot on the floor to cut MCW’s margin to five points.
Kills by Kate Armon and Kylee Eckmann sandwiched around a Mavericks’ kill attempt that sailed out of bounds cut MCW’s lead to 22-20.
When the visitors failed to get the ball over the net on the next point, the Bucs had closed the deficit to one point at 22-21.
The Bucs blocked a ball out of bounds to put MCW on top 23-21 but Eckmann’s kill on the next point rolled across the net before dropping on the Mavericks’ side to pull BEA to within one again at 23-22.
The two teams then traded points. With MCW on top 24-23, the Mavericks nailed a kill shot to take the 25-23 victory.
Set number three once again had the Bucs build an early 8-1 lead courtesy of a kill and two ace blocks by Alicia Machacek.
Although MCW would pull to within one point of BEA at 15-14, the Bucs never surrendered the lead and held on for a 25-22 win.
Leading in sets 2-1, the Mavericks never trailed in the fourth set as they pulled away for the 25-16 victory to clinch the match.
The Bucs were led at the service line by Taylor Klabunde who was 20 of 21 serving for 11 points. Haley Kalis was a perfect 17 of 17 for nine points and Eloise Blair was 13 of 15 for eight points.
Becker led the team with 11 kills followed by Eckmann with nine, Machacek with eight and Berkley Hagedorn with four.
Machacek had four ace blocks, Becker tallied three and Eckmann had one.
Kalis led BEA with 17 set assists, Becker added 10 and Rylan Storbeck finished with three.
On defense, it was Blair leading the way with 22 digs. Klabunde finished the game with 12 digs and Armon ended up with 11.