Colfax season ended by streaking Comets

CAMERON — For as dominant as the Colfax volleyball team was by winning all three regional games in three sets, it was a different caliber of team they faced when they traveled to Cameron Oct. 30 to take on the Comets in the sectional semi-final match. Both teams were a number one seed and the Vikings have shown plenty of firepower as of late on the offensive side of the net as well as the ability to keep plays going with their diving digs and blocks on the defensive side. But up against six foot three inch Hannah Bailey who will play for Division I Iowa State next year and a strong supporting cast, the Vikings went down in three sets to the Comets 25-17, 25-11, 25-10.

The first set was close most of the way with the score knotted six times early on with Kori Buchanan putting down the first kill for Colfax and serving up an ace. Dannielle Dachel scored on a kill and a tip and with the score at 8-8 Makayla Mattson put the Vikings up on a tip shot. Cameron began to pull away, taking a 17-11 lead before Colfax made a short run with Lakken Meredith serving, forcing some Comet miscues to get back within three points at 18-15. The M and M girls, Marianne Scharlau and Mattson combined for a block and the Vikings were within two at 19-17, but it was their turn to commit a few errors as they misfired on two kills, then gave up points on tips to the middle of the court to fall behind 23-17. A Bailey kill and a Colfax error finished off the first set for Cameron.

Colfax fell behind 7-2 early in set two and got a little closer at 8-5 with an Olson kill, but they couldn’t generate any consistency in their offense as they didn’t score more than one point at a time the rest of the set. Bailey not only can slam the ball at the net, the left hander showed her serving power by slicing eight consecutive points for a 16-5 Comet lead before Dachel finally broke the string with a kill. The Vikings didn’t get any closer than 11 points the rest of the set, however.

“Our ability to receive the serve and get that first pass up to our setters just wasn’t consistent,” coach Pam Meredith said. “That was throwing our whole offense off so I told the girls to just relax and play like they had the past few weeks.”

Any hopes of a comeback like they produced in the conference championship match against Elk Mound disappeared early after a 4-4 tie in the third set became a 15-5 deficit rather quickly. Olson added a point with a rare Colfax kill and Buchanan added one from the back row to get to within 11 points down 18-7. The M and M girls combined for another block to keep the Vikings within two at 19-8 but Cameron rattled off  four more points before Buchanan put down what turned out to be her final kill of her high school career. Meredith and Scharlau scored the Vikings’ final point with a block then Bailey put the exclamation point on the win for the Comets with a big slam down the middle of the court.

“We seemed to be playing a lot more defense then offense tonight and I have to give credit to Cameron because they took us out of our offensive game,” Meredith said. “We have some great players but they had too many weapons for us to cover  tonight,” she added.

Colfax finished with just 18 kills in the match with Olson leading the team with six while Buchanan had five. Buchanan had the only ace serve of the game for the Vikings, Scharlau added two solo blocks and Meredith came up with 15 of the team’s 16 assists. The Colfax players were diving and digging to save points all night with Bryana Buchanan coming up with 14 digs to go with 12 from Olson and 10 from Kori Buchanan.

Colfax ended the season with a 24-14 record, 9-0 in conference for a conference championship and also won their first regional title in 17 years.