BLUE 3, RED 1 (25-17, 25-17, 23-25, 25-21)
The Minnesota Volleyball Coaches Association held their fall clinic (yes your read that right fall) on Wednesday and Thursday. One of the features of this two day event is the annual all star game. This year was the 32nd edition and there has been changes. In the past there have been three squads battling each other in a best of two format. This year the numbers didn’t allow for that. Only 13 players were involved in this year’s event and therefore there was no white team and the battle was best of five between the Reds and Blues. With the all star game held in the last week of July many 2019s have already departed for their collegiate life. This is one reason why so few players remain. The 13 players, using the four class system that will be in effect in two more years, had 7 listed from AA and 7 listed from A. (Today one of the A players did not attend, reason not stated).
The Blues took advantage of the Reds inability to serve to get the first two wins. In the first set, of the first five Red serves, three were missed. The Blues led at that stage 6-5. The Reds did string together three straight points to lead 8-7 with a block and then a kill by Jamie Guptil (Rush City). A 9-1 runs which started with a missed serve into the net put the Reds in the driver seat at 16-9. (The Reds added another missed serve in the at run). Gabby Heying (St. Cloud Cathedral) had five kills for Blues in the set. The Reds were led by Madison Guetter (Wabasso) with five kills, four of which came on the first swing.
The Reds led 1-0 for their only lead in the second set. Missed serves continued to plague the Reds. They missed four helping the Blues to a 10-8 lead. After that the Reds were clean. Guetter continued to find the floor for Reds with six kills in the set, five on the first swing. The Blues tried to tire her out by serving her as often as they could. They targeted her 13 times in the second set. Blue finished strong with an 8-2 kick down the stretch. Powering the Blues in set two was Isabelle Roufs (Howard Lake) with five kills, an ace and two block assists.
The Reds utilized a run of seven straight points to pull in front 9-7 in set three. That momentum came off of Piper Asche’s (MACCRAY) serve. She had two aces in that run. The Blues tied it at 16. Asche, with a first swing kill, ignited another run of three (19-16) with another ace too. It looked like the Blues would pull it out with a run of four directly after with Heying getting things rolling with a first swing kill. But the Reds hung on, squeezed a point off their next three services and sent the match to four sets when they scored the final two points of the set on an overpass kill by Rhyan Herrmann (Glencoe-Silver Lake) followed by a Blue hitting error. Asche topped the Reds with five points in that set. Heying led all players with seven earned points for Blue.
That loss refocused Blue as they jumped out to the first three points of the fourth set. That was to be the only run in the entire set. Roufs scored two of those points with a kill and block on points one and three. Late in the set the Blues were able to slam the door on the Reds getting five straight first ball side outs. Heying had two first swing kills in that run (23-19). The Reds scored the next two points, but Lizzy Gillingham gave Blue a chance to close out with a first swing kill. The final point came on a hitting error.
The Lindi Fogelberg MVP award went to setter Morgan Kockelman (Minneota) of the Blues with 52 assists. Roufs and Heying each had 17 kills for the Blues. Heying added 19 digs, Roufs four blocks. Guetter topped the Reds with 13 kills, the only player in double digits.
Box score tomorrow