Kenyon-Wanamingo Volleyball Rolls After First Set Jitters

The Kenyon-Wanamingo Knights swept the Academy of Holy Angels Stars in their state tournament opener Thursday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

The Stars had a 13-10 lead into the first set, with eight of their points coming from Knights errors. After an attack error by Mara Quam, Holy Angels had a 20-19 lead and the butterflies were suddenly gone.

Corynne Dahl smacked a kill to tie the set at 20. Quam tallied a kill to give the Knights a lead they would not relinquish.

The Stars had a couple of attack errors. Megan Flom collected a kill on the slide and Quam ended the set with a crushing kill: Kenyon- Wanamingo 25, Academy of Holy Angels 21.

Mia Peterson served the Knights to a 4-0 lead to start the second set, with Flom executing two kills and Quam and Maddie McCauley the other two. Kenyon-Wanamingo had an attack percentage of .364 in the set and Flom had four ace serves in the 25-12 win.

The third set the Knights had another fast start coupled with four Holy Angels attack errors to take a 9-1 lead.

Knight senior Mara Quam had 15 kills while hitting .135 and added seven digs and a couple of block assists along with an ace serve. Fellow senior Megan Flom crushed 11 kills while hitting .375, tallied four ace serves, one solo block and two block assists. Senior Mia Peterson had 29 assists and classmate Kasey Dummer 11 digs to lead the Knights.

Those four were our Sviggum Insurance Agency Knights of the match.

Maddie McCauley was super efficient, too, with seven kills and a .583 attack percentage, 11 assists, four digs and a block assist.

The No. 1-ranked and No. 1 seed in the Class 2A Tournament will play No. 4 seed Concordia Academy of Roseville in semifinal action tomorrow at the X.

The Beacons are 25-7 and were rated No. 8 in the final Minnesota Volleyball Coaches Association poll. Concordia Academy defeated Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta in four sets, with two of them going overtime.

Fellow Hiawatha Valley League member Kasson-Mantorville also advanced to semis with a sweep of Hermantown.