7AAA Championship
FOREST LAKE 3, GRAND RAPIDS 0
(25-15, 25-23, 25-22)
#3 seed Forest Lake is headed to state after sweeping #1 seed Grand Rapids in the 7AAA finals at Princeton. The Rangers will be one of two #3 seeds crashing the party. The other six are #1 seeds in their section. GR was also #12 in the QRF prior to the game. Since they were the biggest fish out there I hadn’t charted, this was the game. FL was #27 prior to the game.
FL upset #1 GR thanks to a strong service game. The Rangers kept working the right side of the receive formation and came up with a whopping 11 aces on the night. They also controlled the net with double digits in blocks. The Thunderhawks lost the one touch battle 21-3 (aces & opponents missed serves). GR basically had to play catch up in every set. The Thunderhawks would dig a hole, come close to climbing out, and fell right back into the hole.
FL got the first boost of the night with a run of five to take a 7-3 lead. Abigail Groeneweg came up with three kills in that initial outburst. It also forced a GR time out. It looked like GR was back in the flow after a run of four, but a service error ended their momentum. That fueled a 9-1 FL run. Set two had FL with the first run, but it was more muted out to 6-2. Groeneweg again lit the fire with two kills in the three point run. GR tied it at 9 and 13. It looked like FL was going to zip by with a run of four started by….a missed serve (17-13). GR burned their second time out in that sequence. FL had to regroup when GR responded with a run of three. The Rangers were clinging to a 17-16 lead when the comeback was derailed by….a missed serve. That started a six point burst (23-16). That run ended on….a missed serve. Angela Denny pulled GR back with three kills in the run of six, but the THawks still were down one 23-22. This time it was a double contact that popped the balloon. FL had one set point they gave away on a hitting error. Clara Olson finished it on a first swing on the second opportunity.
As they did the in the first two sets, FL got the first run of the set out to 7-4. Kaitlyn Bakke capped the run with two straight aces. GR was resurgent with a 7-1 push (12-9) which forced the first FL time out. That run ended on….a missed serve. FL regained the lead at 14-13 on an ace by Angela Denny. GR took their last lead at 18-17 when Groeneweg got a first swing kill off a disputed touch. She then went back to serve and had two aces in the eventual five point boost (22-18). It was just a matter of siding out at that point.
This will be Forest Lake’s second appearance at state. The last time they made it was 2002. The Rangers are now 21-8. The Suburban East is sending two teams to the state tournament this year. Stillwater will join the Rangers. GR ends the year at 23-6.
As of right now I won’t see the top 20 teams in the state. #17 East Ridge went down tonight to Eagan. We will see if things are reshuffled tomorrow or Monday.
FOREST LAKE
SRV | # | Name | Pos | Year | A | B | K | Pts |
1 | 1 | Elly Capra | S | 2018 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
6 | Lindsey Lautigar | RH | 2018 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
2 | 3 | Angela Denney | OH | 2019 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 14 |
3 | 9 | Ava Schmoll | L | 2019 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
16 | Clara Olson | MH | 2018 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 8 | |
4 | 15 | Kaitlyn Bakke | S | 2019 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
10 | Lindsey Johhson | RH | 2019 | 0 | 0.5 | 2 | 2.5 | |
5 | 12 | Abigail Groeneweg | OH | 2019 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 15 |
6 | 2 | Abby Bier | Serve | 2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
19 | Brie Mottaz | MH | 2019 | 0 | 4.5 | 5 | 9.5 | |
totals | 11 | 10 | 36 | 47 |
GRAND RAPIDS
SRV | # | Name | Pos | Year | A | B | K | Points |
1 | 1 | Hailee Orhn | L | 2020 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
13 | Hannah DeMars | MH | 2019 | 0 | 1.5 | 3 | 4.5 | |
2 | 10 | Marissa Rossi | S | 2018 | 1 | 0.5 | 0 | 1.5 |
3 | 3 | Brianna Sutherland | OH | 2018 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 13 |
4 | 8 | Andrea Markovich | MH | 2019 | 0 | 0.5 | 4 | 4.5 |
5 | 6 | Jenna Olson | DS | 2019 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
18 | Lizzy Brown | RH | 2019 | 0 | 1.5 | 3 | 4.5 | |
6 | 15 | Molly Hasbargen | DS | 2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
9 | Megan Walsh | OH | 2019 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 | |
totals | 2 | 5 | 34 | 41 |
TRENCH PLAYER
Abigail Groeneweg
EARNED | |||
Team | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Forest Lake | 20 | 16 | 21 |
Grand Rapids | 11 | 16 | 14 |
ALLOWED | |||
Forest Lake | 4 | 7 | 8 |
Grand Rapids | 5 | 9 | 4 |
BY THE NUMBERS
Item | Forest Lake | Grand Rapids |
First Swing SO | 12 | 18 |
Runs 3+ | 9 | 6 |
Longest String | 6 | 6 |
Serving % | 73/74-.986 | 54/61-.885 |
Time outs | 2/3-.667 | 3/6-.500 |
Set points | 3/5-.600 | |
Time | 1:17 |
RACE TO …
Set | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
1 | FL | FL | FL | FL | FL |
2 | FL | FL | FL | FL | FL |
3 | FL | GR | FL | FL | FL |
BIGGEST LEAD
Set | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Forest Lake | 10 | 7 | 4 |
Grand Rapids | 1 | 0 | 3 |
RECEIVE TO KILL
FOREST LAKE
Player | Receives | Wins | R2W | Kills | R2K |
Angela Denney | 18 | 10 | .556 | 4 | .222 |
Ava Schmoll | 30 | 16 | .533 | 5 | .167 |
Abigail Groeneweg | 4 | 2 | .500 | 1 | .250 |
Lindsey Lautigar | 2 | 1 | .500 | 1 | .500 |
54 | 29 | .537 | 11 | .204 |
GRAND RAPIDS
Player | Receives | Wins | R2W | Kills | R2K |
Hailee Orhn | 14 | 8 | .571 | 5 | .357 |
Andrea Markovich | 11 | 6 | .545 | 5 | .455 |
Molly Hasbargen | 16 | 8 | .500 | 4 | .250 |
Jenna Olson | 12 | 5 | .417 | 1 | .083 |
Brianna Sutherland | 16 | 6 | .375 | 3 | .188 |
Megan Walsh | 4 | 1 | .250 | 0 | .000 |
Totals | 73 | 34 | .466 | 18 | .247 |
SWING TO KILL
FOREST LAKE
Clara Olson | 4 |
Abigail Groeneweg | 3 |
Angela Denny | 2 |
Brie Mottaz | 2 |
Totals | 11 |
GRAND RAPIDS
Brianna Sutherland | 5 |
Andrea Markovich | 4 |
Megan Walsh | 4 |
Lizzy Brown | 2 |
Hannah DeMars | 2 |
Hailee Olson | 1 |
Totals | 18 |