The Kenyon-Wanamingo Knights put up a ferocious block and defeated the St. Peter Saints in four sets Thursday night at New Prague High School.

Scores were 25-21 St. Peter in the first set and then Kenyon-Wanamingo relaxed, adjusted and moved their feet better to capture the next three sets 25-14, 25-18, 25-15 and advance to the Section 2 Class 2A Championship Saturday night.

The first set St. Peter had 7 ace serves so the first adjustment the Knights needed to make was in their serve reception.

Head Coach for Kenyon-Wanamingo agreed her team was tight the first set but after they settled down and simply went out and had fun then they took control of the match.

Coach Nerison told us before the match getting a block up on 6'2 junior Claire Nuessmeier would be a Milo Peterson Ford key to the match.

Nuessmeier unofficially finished the night with 11 kills primarily to a wall of three blockers when she was at the net.

All three front row players would put up a block when she got the ball.

Offensively Knight setters Maddie McCauley and Madi Luebke were very good at disbursing the  ball so the Saints couldn't key their block any particular place.

Unofficially I had Julianna Boyum leading the way with 16 kills, Ally Peterson had 12 kills, Corynne Dahl tallied 10 kills and Megan Mattson 6 kills.  McCauley also assisted on the attack with 4 kills.

Unofficially I also had Boyum with 4 blocks, Chelsea Gilster had a couple solo stuffs and Corynne Dahl and Megan Mattson assisted at getting in the heads of the St. Peter attackers.

The Knights will go up against the Stars of Southwest Christian in the championship match Saturday night 8:00 p.m. at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.

The Stars have a very good offensive attack and outlasted another very good offensive team in Glencoe-Silver Lake in the North Subsection Championship match Thursday night in New Prague.

Scores were 25-21 Southwest Christian, 32-30 Glencoe-Silver Lake, 26-24 Southwest Christian and 25-22 Stars.

I counted 10 double hits called on the Panthers and 9 double hits called on the Stars in the match.

Glencoe-Silver Lake had seven set points before they finally put away Southwest Christian in the second set.

The Panthers had their chances in the third set also but had a costly service error when they were behind 23-22.

Southwest Christian is 23-8 and riding a four match winning streak.

Kenyon-Wanamingo is 21-7 and has now won ten straight matches.

All the double hit calls made it hard for either team to get into any rhythm on offense but Southwest Christian runs a varied speed attack.

By that I mean they don't crush the ball every time at the net.

The Stars will sometimes hammer the ball, sometimes push the ball to a hole and they tip with regularity.

Southwest Christian also utilizes the dump kill in the middle of some points so Kenyon-Wanamingo will have to be ready for anything.

5'9 senior Anna Sperbeck led the Stars attack against Glencoe-Silver Lake, 5'7 senior Brooke Herman also had double digit kills and 5'10 senior Carly Watchorn tallied four solo blocks.

Fellow Hiawatha Valley League Co-Champion Stewartville was defeated by the Kasson-Mantorville Komets in four sets in the West Subsection Championship of Section 1 Class 2A.

The Komets will play Plainview-Elgin-Millville Saturday at 11:00 a.m. for a berth into the State Volleyball Tournament next week.

The Komets are the defending Section 1 Class 2A champions.

Plainview-Elgin-Millville also downed Red Wing in four sets.

In Section 1 Class A the Faribault Bethlehem Academy Cardinals were down two sets to one and after opening their match with Hayfield with a 25-19 win.

The Vikings collected 25-16 and 25-15 convincing victories in the next two sets before the Cardinals won 25-22 and 16-14 to advance to the Section 1 Class A title match Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. in the Rochester Mayo Civic Center Arena.

Caledonia defeated Mabel-Canton 3-1 to capture the East Subsection Championship of Section 1 Class A.  The Bulldogs won the first set 25-20, Mabel-Canton the second 25-23 and then the Warriors collected 25-22, 25-19 wins.

Caledonia is the defending Section 1 Class A Champion.

In Section 2 Class A the Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Buccaneers were down a set before reeling off three straight victories in their 3-1 win over St. Clair in Mankato Thursday night.

Scores were 25-22 St. Clair and then 26-24, 25-21, 25-18 for the Bucs.

6:00 p.m. Saturday at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter Waterville-Elysian-Morristown will play the defending State Champion Mayer Lutheran Crusaders.

The Crusaders are the top ranked team in Class A and have not lost to a Class A school this season.

Mayer Lutheran made short work of their North Subsection Championship in Section 2 Class A rolling over BOLD in three sets 25-12, 25-11, 25-21.

My View for K-W Subsection Final with St. Peter in New Prague. Photo by Gordy Kosfeld
My View for K-W Subsection Final with St. Peter in New Prague. Photo by Gordy Kosfeld
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