Kenyon-Wanamingo Volleyball Outlasts Stewartville

The Kenyon-Wanamingo Knights overcame being trounced in the third set and beat the defending state champion Stewartville Tigers in a five-set thriller in Stewartville on Tuesday night.

Stewartville hammered six ace serves en route to a 25-15 win in the first set. The Knights won the second set 25-20. The Tigers were purring in a 25-7 third set win that saw seven more service aces. Kenyon-Wanamingo then picked up 25-20 and 15-12 victories to remain unbeaten in the Hiawatha Valley League.

The Knights had a 8-4 lead in the fifth set only to see Stewartville come storming back.

Interesting note, Kenyon-Wanamingo head coach Jen Nerison's Knights won the coin flip before the fifth set and chose to stay on the court that saw the winner in every set.

Usually the team that wins the flip takes the serve because you only go to 15 and want to start on offense. The way Stewartville was serving up aces (I had them with 18) giving them the ball to start the fifth set had to confuse them a little bit.

The Tigers did not have a service ace in the fifth set and Nerison agreed with me that her team's block in the fourth and fifth sets were the key to their turnaround.

Every single player for Kenyon-Wanamingo contributed to the win and that's why our Kenyon-Holden-Warsaw Insurance Agency of Wanamingo Knights of the match were the entire team.

Junior libero Kasey Dummer tallied 42 digs and 6-foot junior Megan Flom collected six solo blocks, including three in the ffith set. Junior outside hitter Mara Quam was her usual athletic self with more than 30 digs to go with doubl-digit kills on the night.

Junior setter Mia Peterson and senior setter Siri Quam took some off-target passes and turned them into hittable sets for their teammates.

You could point to an outstanding play turned in by every Knight who played in the contest, and the bench did a terrific job of cheering on their teammates every step of the way.

Before the match, Nerison told Power 96 Radio the Milo Peterson Ford Key to the match was mental toughness and the ability to forget bad plays and go on to the next one.

The Knights had to let go of very bad first and third Sets. Double mental focus.

The win in Stewartville upped Kenyon-Wanamingo's Hiawatha Valley League Conference mark to 7-0 while Stewartville fell to 5-1.

The Knights host Hayfield on Thursday night in the Castle while Stewartville is at Lake City.

The number two rated Class AA Tigers are now 9-4 overall on the season with two invitational tournaments in the cities and five conference matches remaining.

Tenth ranked Class  AA Kenyon-Wanamingo is 24-3 and has just four matches left, all in the HVL.