Autumn Gordon gets a dig while her teammate Madelyn Ferguson keeps an eye on the action.

St. Peter brought a squad of tall and experienced volleyball players to Blue Earth to take on the Bucs on Thursday night, Oct. 10, and the Saints marched home with a 25-15, 25-12, 25-19 victory.

BEA battled hard and hung tough in every set, but could not overcome St. Peter’s height advantage.

The Saints appeared to be pulling away in the opening set when they jumped out to a 6-2 lead. However, a serve out of bounds by St. Peter followed by a kill by BEA’s Autumn Gordon, another out-of-bounds hit by the Saints and a serve by Taylor Ripley that St. Peter could not handle tied the set at 6-6.

The Saints went on to score six out of the next seven points to gain a 12-7 advantage and continued pulling away for a 25-15 victory in the opening set.

The two squads had played to a 5-5 tie in the second set before St. Peter opened up a 14-7 lead on their way to winning the second set 25-12.

Down by two sets, BEA fell behind 11-5 in the third set but kept battling. The Bucs were still trailing 17-11 when they scored three consecutive points to narrow the Saints’ lead to 17-14.

St. Peter pulled away again to take a 22-16 lead. Once again, BEA dug in and scored the next three points to cut St. Peter’s lead to 22-19.

In the end, the Saints were just too strong and took the last set 25-19.

Madelyn Ferguson led the Bucs’ defense with 16 digs. Tailor Douglas tallied nine digs, Anna Mwangi had six, Gordon had five and Ripley had four.

Madison Ehrich paced the team with eight set assists followed by Ripley with six and Gordon with three.

Gordon led the Bucs at the net with 13 kills and two ace blocks. Mwangi had four kills and one ace block, Tailor Douglas had two kills, Sarah Dohm had two ace blocks and Laura Steinhauer had one ace block.

Ripley was 12-for-12 at the service line with one ace and seven points. Ferguson was 9-for-9 serving for six points. Jackie Martinez and Douglas each tallied two service points.

With the win, St. Peter improves to 19-8 while BEA falls to 5-19.

The Bucs will be back in action on Monday, Oct. 14, when they travel to Lake Crystal to take on the Knights. The Section 2AA playoffs begin on Oct. 17.

St. James 3, BEA 1

The St. James Area Saints played host to the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers in volleyball on Tuesday, Oct. 8. The Saints made the most of their home court advantage to defeat the Bucs in four sets, 3-1. The scores were 26-24, 17-25, 25-14, 25-15.

It was a tight battle in the first set with SJA finally prevailing 26-24.

The Bucs evened the match at one set apiece when they won the second set 25-17.

St. James Area regained the momentum and took the third set 25-14. The Saints won the fourth set 25-15 to clinch the match.

Madelyn Ferguson was the leading server for the Bucs with nine points and one ace on 14-for-15 serving. Taylor Ripley was also 14-for-15 at the service line and was credited with seven service points.

Autumn Gordon led BEA on defense with 16 digs followed by Ferguson with 15, Ripley with 12 and Tailor Douglas with 11.

The Bucs were led at the net by Gordon with nine kills and three ace blocks while Anna Mwangi had five kills and two ace blocks.

Ripley led the team in set assists with 11 followed by Madison Ehrich with eight.

MCW 3, BEA 0

The Blue Earth Area volleyball team was on the road Monday, Oct. 7, to face a very strong Martin County West team.

The Mavericks won their fourth straight match and improved their record to 13-7 when they downed the Bucs in three sets, 25-12, 25-7, 25-12.

Autumn Gordon led the Bucs with eight kills followed by Taylor Ripley with five and Tailor Douglas with three.

Douglas, Anna Mwangi and Ripley each had one ace block.

Madison Ehrich had seven set assists to lead the team. Ripley finished the contest with five set assists.

Leading the team on defense with 17 digs was Gordon. Madelyn Ferguson tallied 11 digs and Douglas finished with five.

Gordon led BEA in service points with six. She was 8-for-9 at the service line and had one ace.