Lady Vikings tune up for conference play

After hosting their own triangular against Plum City and Boyceville Sept.10, the Colfax volleyball team saw plenty of action when they played four matches at the Hudson Invite Saturday, Sept. 14. The meets were final tune ups before they begin conference matches, starting with Elk Mound Sept. 17.

Colfax meet

The meet was supposed to be a quadangular back on August 27 but due to the high heat index outside, it was reschedule as a triangular a week later. The Vikings had a chance to see how they matched up against a couple of conference teams and it appears they matched up quite well as they defeated Plum City in two sets 25-23 and 25-20 and played a third set for fun, winning 15-9. They finished the day by beating Boyceville 25-14 and 25-20 and lost the optional third set 15-10. (When they begin conference play this week, they must win three of five sets to win the match).

Kori Buchanan led the Vikings in kill points with 25, with 15 against the Bulldogs. Chey Olson and Taylor Shipman both scored seven points each on kills against Plum City while Emily Tuschl collected seven digs. Dannielle Dachel assisted her teammates 42 times with 23 against Boyceville and combined with Olson and Katie Christoffel for a perfect serving night, going 38 for 38.

“This was a nice chance to see some conference competition,” coach Pam Meredith said. “It will be a little different when we play 3 of 5 in match play. That will really test our endurance. We had to change our lineup against Boyceville when one of our starters was ill but we had some kids step up and fill in pretty well.”

Hudson

A definite pattern emerged for the Vikings as they won the first set of  each of their four matches. But they ended up losing the next two sets to Hudson and Prescott before beating Bloomer in the second and third set to win their only match of the day. They ended things with a loss to Baldwin-Woodville to finish 1-3 for the day.

“We played fundamentally sound in the first set of every match,” Meredith said. “But we couldn’t stay on track after the win. The roller coaster levels we have been playing at will not cut it when we begin conference play and post season play. We missed 21 serves and we missed a lot of balls due to lack of communication on the floor. We are a very talented team and I hope we can maximize our potential by fixing these issues,” she added.

Buchanan led in the kill department with 31 for the tournament, Braanna Steen added 16, Olson had 15 and Halpin 13. Olson picked up 28 digs while Buchanan had 26 and Dachel was the top setter with 47 and Lakken Meredith, back from an injury finished with 43.