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PREP VOLLEYBALL: Area teams wrap up at Jimmy John’s Classic

Photo by Sam Thiel RTR’s Kylea Baartman (11) and Madison Witte (9) team up for a block during their match against MCC on Saturday.

MARSHALL – Multiple area teams wrapped up play at the Jimmy John’s Classic on Saturday, with Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, Westbrook-Walnut Grove, Dawson-Boyd, Lakeview and Murray County Central all taking part in the two-day tournament.

RTR

The Knights won their pool play Friday to advance to the Gold Division on Saturday by defeating Kimball Area 2-0 (25-8, 25-14) and WWG 2-1 (25-18, 24-26, 15-11). On Saturday, RTR opened with a three-set win over MCC (25-20, 20-25, 15-11) before taking out Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 2-0 (25-19, 25-13) and MACCRAY 2-0 (25-17, 25-21) to take home first place.

RTR coach Daynica Brown said the tournament was a great learning experience and it was great to bring back first place at the tournament for the first time in 21 years.

“I think in general this was a great learning experience knowing that we can be at the top. This was great for the girls to see that and be a part of it,” Brown said. “It’s been 21 years since RTR won this tournament; through this tournament, there’s good competition so it’s nice to bring this championship home after 21 years and it’s exciting on that side of it.”

Haley Muenchow led the way for the Knights with 44 total kills while Kylea Baartman added 35, Kalleigh Carr had 23 and Madison Witte added 22. Mckinley Schreurs led in set assists with 113 total while Carr and Madison Wendland led in total digs with 68.

Brown said their key was playing together and relying on a balanced effort from their team.

“I think just in general, we’ve been playing as a team,” Brown said. “We need everybody to step up and we’ve learned that it’s not just one hitter you can have all the kills from, you need every single one to step up and it’s a team effort. They have a great team attitude and they’re like family, and that’s huge especially at tournament time.”

RTR will face Wabasso today at 7:15 p.m. before closing out the regular season against Edgerton on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m.

MCC

The Rebels also won their pool play on Friday by defeating Cedar Mountain and Windom Area to advance to the Gold Division on Saturday. MCC then opened Saturday’s play with a hard-fought, three-set loss to RTR before bouncing back with 2-1 victories over Heron Lake-Okabena (23-25, 25-22, 15-2) and Adrian (25-22, 13-25, 15-10) to earn a fifth-place finish.

MCC coach Kate DeLong said they were able to play clean and aggressive on Friday, but struggled to start strong on Saturday. After the opening loss to RTR on Saturday, DeLong felt they were able to turn things around late in sets to earn the victories.

“Overall, Friday night was a really great night for us. We came out with some intensity and made some clean, aggressive plays all night. Saturday, we struggled to step off the bus and were sluggish,” DeLong said. “We played well against RTR but had a lot of mental errors that we had to clean up in order to beat them. Against HLO, we didn’t come out with the same intensity and aggressiveness that we know we have. We gave them a talk in that third set and we definitely turned it around.”

Alyssa Groves led the way for the Rebels with 54 total kills while Elise Rohrer and Bryn Hoekman each added 20. Brianna Schmitz led in set assists with 74 total while Danielle Kuball added 51. Courtney Schmitz led in digs with 70 total while Montana Beckmann added 61.

DeLong said their key has been their ability to serve tough as a team.

“Our aggressive serving is what gets us our leads and helps us keep those leads,” DeLong said. “They make players move left to right and if we can continue to do that, we’re going to have a lot of success in the postseason.”

MCC will compete next at the Section 3A Tournament as the No. 5 seed and will face No. 12 Edgerton next Monday at 7 p.m.

Lakeview

The Lakers went 1-1 in pool play on Friday, defeating Worthington 2-0 (25-13, 25-6) before falling to GFW 2-1 (18-25, 25-23, 11-15) to move to the Brown Division on Saturday. Lakeview then defeated Brandon-Evansville 2-0 (25-18, 25-17), fell to Windom Area 2-0 (25-22, 25-13) before beating Martin County West 2-0 (25-16, 25-17) to take third place in the Brown Division.

Lakeview coach Hailey Osland said they were able to come out strong in their first match on Friday, but couldn’t maintain the same intensity against GFW. She added they were able to just play their game against Brandon-Evansville and take it from there.

“On Friday, I thought we came out strong and then got a little bit relaxed against GFW,” Osland said. “Then we played Brandon-Evansville last year and we beat them, so we knew a little bit what they had to offer, but we were just really focused on our game and that’s what helped us pull out the win.”

LeeAnn Stensrud led the way for the Lakers with 30 total kills while Sierra Plotz added 24, Harley Orvis had 21 and Savannah Rausch had 20. Alexis Lienemann led in digs with 45 total while Sidney Geistfeld added 31. Kaitlin Fischer led in set assists with 100 total while Plotz led in blocks with 13 total.

Osland said their key during the tournament was their consistency on offense and credited Lienemann for her continued efforts on defense as the team prepares for the postseason.

“Just our strong offensive players. We’ve got a few kids that are in the same area as far as kills go, so we’re pretty consistent across the board,” Osland said. “Defensively, our libero Alexis Lienemann has really stepped up and she knows that we need her a lot in the playoffs, so she’s taken a lot on herself and I appreciate her for that.”

Lakeview will face Wabasso on Thursday at 7:15 p.m.

Dawson-Boyd

The Blackjacks opened their pool play on Friday with a split, defeating Martin County West 2-0 before falling to Litchfield 2-0 to drop to the White Division. On Saturday, Dawson-Boyd fell to Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 2-1 and Renville County West 2-0 before defeating Cedar Mountain 2-0 to finish seventh in the White Division.

Dawson-Boyd coach Andrea Lee said some positives from the tournament was their aggressiveness at the net as well as their strong play in the back row.

“We were aggressive at the net, our libero we actually changed midway through the tournament and the second libero that we threw in there did a really nice job in the back row,” Lee said. “I had a couple of players in the front row that hit aggressively, so those are the two main things that I thought went pretty well at this tournament.”

Karoline Dahl led the way for the Blackjacks with 43 total kills while Avery Bartunek added 30 and Mary Bothun had 25. Lydia Aafedt led in set assists with 96 total while Ameila Olson led in digs with 34 total and Bothun added 28.

Lee said the tournament helped their team try some new things and figure some things out as they head into the section tournament next week.

“Saturday was a good day to try new things heading into sections,” Lee said. “I did a couple of different rotations to see which ones worked best, so this tournament really helped us figure out our set rotation and who can be thrown into the court if we need a substitute.”

Dawson-Boyd will compete next in the Section 3A Tournament as the No. 9 seed and will face No. 8 seed CMCS next Monday at 7 p.m. in Prinsburg.

WWG

The Chargers began their pool play on Friday with a pair of losses to RTR 2-1 and Kimball 2-0 to drop to the White Division on Saturday. WWG then defeated Cedar Mountain and Springfield before falling to KMS to earn a second-place finish in the White Division.

WWG assistant coach Rusty Jackels said after a slow start on Friday, she was pleased with their intensity and play on Saturday.

“The first day was a little disappointing; we didn’t really come out to play but they really picked it up on Saturday,” Jackels said. “They were really playing scrappy and going for everything and fighting for the win.”

Jackels added their key during the tournament was their blocking up front as well as their ability to serve tough.

“We’ve really had a lot of help from our blocks up front, they’ve really been playing big and our serving has been really good which is something that we’ve struggled with on and off this season,” Jackels said.

WWG will face Fulda today at 7:15 p.m. before closing out the regular season on Tuesday against Wabasso at 7:15 p.m. Jackels said it was nice to get a few wins in the tournament and regain some momentum before they head into the section tournament against Fulda next week.

“It’s nice to get a couple of wins under our belt; we’ve had a rough couple of weeks so it’s nice to get back into the win column and get that intensity back up and know that we can do this,” Jackels said. “We’ve got Fulda the first round of the playoffs, so it’s nice to play some competition before then.”

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