It was a good night to be a Knight. It was a Harding day for me on Wednesday. For the first Wednesday night showing this season in boys volleyball, I opted for the East side of St. Paul. It made sense since I covered the badminton action with Harding at Johnson (10 minutes away as opposed to an hour’s journey for my other option). Johnson prevailed in badminton, but the Harding boys volleyball team provided a W to their faithful, and loud throng. Tonight I was able to cross off two more schools, with Henry Sibley of West St. Paul/Mendota Heights being the other school. Andover, who I charted on the first night in April, made up the third team. Since I charted two teams, Andover was the team that got double duty. The Huskies split on the day, losing to the hosts and then bumping off Henry Sibley.

I am happy to report there were no line up issues or rotational situations where a middle remained in the front for seven rotations.

Today I would characterize the issues as more net violations as players are starting to get more aggressive at the net, but lack body awareness and spacing. Many kills that will be listed tomorrow, are in fact gifts from net violations. It also works the other way with arm swings, or forward momentum, that got caught in the net.

This weekend there will be a mid season tournament at Shakopee on Saturday and Sunday. Since this is not a MSHSL sponsored activity, Sundays are good to go. I will not be able to cover the contests this weekend and will be back on the trail again on Monday whittling away the teams I have yet to see. So far I have a Baker’s dozen, with nine teams left to chart.

GAME ONE: HARDING 2, ANDOVER 0 (25-13, 25-18)

The Harding Knights were the team of the day. In the first set with Andover they earned 18 points, 15 on kills. The big run in this set came with eight straight points (12-3) when Kengdao Thao was serving. They rested their top three scorers for the second set and despite Andover out earning Harding 13-7, the Knights won 25-18 thanks to four serving errors along with 12 hitting errors. Despite only playing in one set, the leading point getter for the Knights was Chameng Xiong with seven points, five on kills. Those seven points equaled Andover’s total in the first set. It is clear the Harding players have had experience with volleyball. Their swings were alive and they were driving the ball hard.

ST. PAUL HARDING

SRV	#	Name	Pos	A	B	K	Points
1	16	Chameng Xiong	OH	2	0	5	7
1	17	Chimeng Kevin Xiong	OH	0	0	2	2
2	20	Martinie Chhin	MH	0	0	0	0
3	11	Kengdao Thao	RH	1	0	2	3
3	25	Christian Lor	RH	0	0	0	0
4	1	Konghoua Chang	OH	0	0	5	5
4	6	Peter Lee	OH	0	0	2	2
5	8	Doua Neng Lor	MH	0	0	3	3
6	14	Roger Vue	S	0	0	0	0
6	12	Syman Vang	S	0	0	0	0
totals				3	0	19	22

ANDOVER

SRV	#	Name	Pos	A	B	K	Points
1	15	Justice Williams	R/S	0	1	0	1
2	3	Tommy Kelly	OH	1	0	1	2
3	7	Lucas Beberg	MH	0	0	5	5
4	1	Evan Ash	RS	0	0	5	5
5	11	Nolan Foy	OH	2	0	3	5
6	4	Charlie Fenton	L	0	0	0	0
6	18	Zach Lavor	MH	0	0	2	2
totals				3	1	16	20

TRENCH PLAYER
Chameng Xiong, with only one set under the belt

EARNED
Team	1	2
St. Paul Harding	18	7
Andover	7	13
ALLOWED
St. Paul Harding	6	5
Andover	7	17

BY THE NUMBERS

Item	St. Paul Harding	Andover
SIDE OUT	11/19-.579	5/19-.263
Runs 3+	8	3
Longest String	8	4
Serving %	46/50-.920	28/31-.903
Time outs	1/1-1.000	0/2-.000
Set points	2/3-.667

RACE TO …

Set	5	10	15	20	25
1	H	H	H	H	H
2	A	H	H	H	H

BIGGEST LEAD

Set	1	2
St. Paul Harding	12	9
Andover	1	2

RECEIVE TO KILL

ST. PAUL HARDING

Player	Receives	Wins	R2W	Kills	R2K
16 Chameng Xiong	3	3	1.000	2	.667
1 Konghoua Chang	2	1	.500	1	.500
20 Martinie Chhin	3	0	.000	0	.000
8 Doua Neng Lor	8	3	.375	1	.125
17 Chimeng Kevin Xiong	4	3	.750	0	.000
25 Christian Lor	4	2	.500	0	.000
Totals	24	12	.500	4	.167

ANDOVER

Player	Receives	Wins	R2W	Kills	R2K
4 Charlie Fenton	10	5	.500	1	.100
11 Nolan Foy	14	3	.214	2	.143
3 Tommy Kelly	12	4	.333	1	.083
1 Evan Ash	9	3	.333	3	.333
7 Lucas Beberg	1	0	.000	0	.000
Totals	46	15	.327	7	.152

GAME TWO: ANDOVER 2, HENRY SIBLEY 0 (25-19, 25-11)

Andover had seven players in the first game. Tommy Kelly, who plays on the MN Select JO team, was not available for the second game and so libero Charlie Fenton had to play Kelly’s slot and that meant the bigs had to play the entire game. The Huskies Iron six strung together five runs in the first set, and another five in the second to take down the Warriors. Nolan Foy for Andover topped all scorers with nine points, seven of which were kills.

ANDOVER

SRV	#	Name	Pos	A	B	K	Points
1	15	Justice Williams	S	0	0	4	4
2	4	Charlie Fenton	OH	0	0	0	0
3	7	Lucas Beberg	MH	2	0	3	5
4	1	Evan Ash	RS	2	0	4	6
5	11	Nolan Foy	OH	1	1	7	9
6	18	Zach Lavor	MH	0	0	3	3
totals				5	1	21	27

 

HENRY SIBLEY

SRV	#	Name	Pos	A	B	K	Points
1	24	Riley Altier	S	2	0	1	3
2	0	Tate Schilling	OH	1	0	0	1
3	32	Brian Gallagher	MH	0	1	2	3
4	3	Sean Lerach	RS	0	0	5	5
5	11	Charles Rutman	OH	2	0	1	3
5	7	Oliver McEllistrem	OH	0	0	1	1
6	21	Ethan McCown	MH	0	1	5	6
6	15	Unknown	L	0	0	0	0
totals				5	2	15	22

TRENCH PLAYER
Nolan Foy

EARNED
Team	1	2
Andover	17	10
Henry Sibley	14	8
ALLOWED
Andover	5	3
Henry Sibley	8	15

BY THE NUMBERS

Item	Andover	Henry Sibley
SIDE OUT	16/21	7/22
Runs 3+	10	3
Longest String	4	3
Serving %	47/49-.959	27/31-.871
Time outs	None	½-.500
Set points	2/2-1.000

RACE TO …

Set	5	10	15	20	25
1	HS	A	HS	A	A
2	A	A	A	A	A

BIGGEST LEAD

Set	1	2
Andover	7	14
Henry Sibley	5	0

 RECEIVE TO KILL

ANDOVER

Player	Receives	Wins	R2W	Kills	R2K
4 Charlie Fenton	4	4	1.000	2	.500
7 Lucas Beberg	6	4	.667	3	.500
18 Zach Lavor	8	5	.625	3	.375
1 Evan Ash	5	3	.600	2	.400
11 Nolan Foy	3	0	.000	0	.000
totals	26	16	.615	10	.385

 HENRY SIBLEY

Player	Receives	Wins	R2W	Kills	R2K
7 Oliver McEllistrem	11	7	.636	2	.182
15 libero	19	7	.368	5	.263
11 Charles Rutman	9	3	.333	1	.111
0 Tate Schilling	8	1	.125	1	.125
Totals	47	18	.383	9	.191