Bethlehem Academy Volleyball Sweeps Owatonna on Senior Night

The Faribault Bethlehem Academy Cardinals held Senior Night in their regular season home finale Monday night.

Head coach Franz Boelter told KDHL before the match how special the group of seniors were and how blessed he was to have them in the Cardinal volleyball program. Then they went out and defeated Class 3A Owatonna by scores of 25-12, 25-19, 25-22.

The six seniors were our Faribault State Farm Insurance agents Faribault players of the match: Payton Nutter, Shelby Meyer, Keely Skluzacek, Kelsey Novak, Kallie Donahue and Breanna Degrood.

Unofficially I had Bethlehem Academy with 10 ace serves and six service errors on the night, led by Skluzacek with four aces. She is amazingly accurate with her kick out jump serve. Sophomore Olivia Nass had three ace serves and junior Mary Campbell had two. Nutter tallied the other one.

Nutter unofficially had 12 kills and Campbell 11 in the three-set win while freshman Delaney Donahue collected five kills.

Campbell did the honors of announcing each of the seniors' names and letting them know how much the rest of the team would miss them, and the seniors were given gifts. There were smiles and a few tears; I saw tears in the eyes of coaches Franz Boelter and Sue Jandro.

Owatonna closes their regular season Tuesday night at Mankato West and Bethlehem Academy goes to Medford on Tuesday night and then competes in the stacked Chaska Tournament this weekend.

Tuesday night on KDHL, Roy Koenig will be in the Castle for the Kenyon-Wanamingo match against Cannon Falls. If the K-W Knights win, they are the Hiawatha Valley League champs all by themselves with an unbeaten conference record.

Last year the Bombers knocked off the Knights in the Hangar and the head coaches at Kenyon-Wanamingo and Cannon Falls are sisters. Coverage begins at 7PM.

I'll be on Power 96 Radio with the Faribault Falcon regular season final match at Rochester Mayo. We are scheduled to start at 6:45PM if everything is on time.

The Spartans were the preseason favorites to win the Big Nine, but won't. Rochester Century is at Mankato East and, if the Panthers win, they are the Big Nine champs and will be unbeaten in the league.

Northfield is at Albert Lea on Tuesday night and, if they win and Century loses, they tie for the title.

The Falcons have lost five straight and a win would give them a much-needed boost of confidence heading into the playoffs.