155th Article at the Independent

Area teams wrap up weekend at Southwest Challenge

CHRIS DRUMMOND

MARSHALL — This past weekend in Marshall was the Southwest Minnesota Challenge, where 32 teams across the state get to come and compete with the very best that volleyball has to offer. After two days of battling it out to see who would win the tournament, the Northfield volleyball team won the championship of the tournament. There were six area teams that participated in the challenge: Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panthers, Minneota Vikings, Yellow Medicine East Sting, Canby Lancers, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Knights and the Marshall Tigers. Here’s a recap of how all six of those teams did.

Marshall Tigers

On Friday evening, the Tigers got off to a blazing start, breezing through their first two games to earn a spot in the top eight championship bracket for Saturday. However, with the Tigers first game Saturday they would drop their first match of the season. The Tigers did bounce back and won the final two matches of the day, giving them a fifth place finish in the tournament. Leah Jones led her team in kills with 39 and serving aces for the tournament with 5. Jones also had 21 digs. Teammate Lauren Wherry had 106 assists in tournament, which led the Tigers and added 19 kills. Caitlyn Christenson led the team in digs with 33 and had nine assists as well in challenge. Head coach of the Tigers, Dan Westby spoke on how beneficial the tournament is for his team.

“Well it is always a great tournament, the level of play is unbelievable,” Westby added. “It is good for us to play these teams. I think outside of a couple of stretches, we played pretty consistently throughout. It was just a good opportunity to see some teams we don’t normally play.”

Westby added that this tournament was good for them to see how the team have to play points out in long rally situations and be able to get these points versus the team’s in the remainder of the season.

The Marshall Tigers (8-1) will host JCC next Tuesday evening.

RTR

The Knights would amass a 3-2 record over the two day event at Marshall and earned a 11th place finish in the tournament. Abby Carr would lead the team with 38 kills and teammate Ella Hess had 36 kills. Hess also had 34 digs in the tournament. Gabi Borreson led the team in assists for the tournament with 61. Also Lexi Schreurs led the team in digs with 47 and was second in assists with 44. The Knights ended the tournament with a win over BBE( Belgrade Brooten Elrosa) in three sets after dropping the first one. Head coach of the Knights Daynica Brown spoke on experience gained in tournament.

“I thought our girls played well in this tournament,” Brown said. “I mean this is top ranked teams all throughout the tournament playing big schools. Lots of learning lessons gained throughout the tournament. I hope the girls are really happy with what they did in this tournament. We are grateful we got the opportunity to play these teams.”

Brown added that Carr and Hess are two terrific outside hitters that make a huge impact for the team. RTR is now (5-2) overall and will travel to Madison to play against the Lac Qui Parle Valley Eagles on Tuesday evening.

Minneota

After nitially dropping the first game to Sioux Falls Roosevelt Friday night, the Vikings would rebound and win four straight matches finishing the tournament 4-1 and placing 17th. Ireland Stassen had wuite the stat line, compiling up 74 assists for tournament, 33 kills, and 21 digs. Teammate Lyzah Sussner led her team in digs with 48 and served 40-40 with two aces. Ella Johnson for the Vikings had 39 kills for the tournament. Head coach of the Vikings Hayley Fruin advocated about team performance throughout the tournament.

“We ended up in 17th place and went 4-1 for the weekend and I thought we did a nice job day two coming back strong from a rough start on Friday,” Fruin said “We did not pass well in our first match and we made too many errors. There was a lot of growing and learning this weekend and I think with an inexperienced team, it was nice to see us come back and get better on day two. We took a bad game and turned it into something positive.”

The Vikings are now (6-1) overall and will travel to face off against Ortonville on Monday evening.

TMB

The Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panthers went 3-2 over their experience at the tournament and placed 21st. Ella Kamrud led the team in kills with 27 for the tournament, while teammate Amber Hensch was second with 24 kills. Hensch les the team in serving aces with five. Senior Grace Dolan led the team in digs with 39 and teammate Hailey Gernantz was second with 32. Gernantz also led the team in assists for the tournament with 65. Head coach of the Panthers Rick Haberman elaborated on the team’s experience of the tournament and thankful for the opportunity to play in the challenge.

“We are honored to be a part of this tournament,” Haberman said. “It is the best volleyball tournament in the state. Major thank you and shout out to Dan Westby, his staff who put in an incredible amount of time to make this event happen. This was a great tournament experience for the Panthers. We were steady throughout the weekend and played well in all facets of the game. We were able to rely on good serving, good passing, and good ball control and presented a very balanced offensive attack. Defensively we were really solid and made a number of exceptional plays.”

The Panthers (5-3) travel to face off against the MACCRAY Wolverines on Tuesday evening.

YME

Yellow Medicine East Sting got off to a rough start Friday evening, dropping both of their contests but bounced back Saturday and earned their first victory of the season over Hutchinson in straight sets. Hannah Stark and Ruby Bones both led their team in kills with 19 for the tournament. Stark also led the Sting in serving aces with five while Bones led the Sting in blocks with 10. Senior Aria Peters who just surpassed 1,000 assists in her careers led the team again in that category with 74 in the tournament and also led her team in digs with 36. Head coach of the Sting Alexis Peters assessed her team’s performance throughout tournament.

“I was really proud with how we played during this tournament,” Peters said. “We played tough and battled hard against AA, AAA, and AAAA schools, and even taking a win against AAA Hutchinson. This tournament is great for us to try some different line ups and find out what clicks for us, and I believe we found that this weekend. A lot of improvement and growth was made over the weekend.”

YME (1-7) overall will travel to face-off against RCW on Tuesday evening.

Canby

The Lancers dropped both of their matches on Friday night, but was able to recover and earn a victory in the tournament Le Sueur-Henderson. Freshman Karlie Wollum led her team in kills with 27 for the tournament with and also was second on team in digs with 48. Freshman Emily Nelson was second on team with 25 kills. Teammate sophomore Aliyah Rangaard led her team in digs with 60 and Paige Nelson led the team in assists with 59, while Emily Nelson was second in assists with 47 for the challenge. Head coach of the Lancers Jenai Wright spoke on the opportunity and wonderful experience of the tournament.

“The Southwest Challenge is a great tournament for us,” Wright added..“The players have the opportunity to compete against some of the best teams from various levels in the state. The tournament is well run, and the girls enjoy playing teams that they don’t normally see in their conference play.”

The Lancers (4-6) overall will play Central Minnesota Christian on Tuesday evening.