Colfax netters sweep pair of conference matches

The Colfax girls did not treat the Durand Panthers too kindly when they arrived to Viking land for their first ever conference volleyball match Sept. 29. After a slow start which finally resulted in a 25-23 win for the Vikings, they pulled themselves together and took the next two sets 25-17 and 25-12 to end the match and allow themselves to get over to the homecoming bonfire on time.

Two days later, they traveled to Boyceville, and after starting strong this time, they had to fight off several Bulldog scoring runs before taking a 25-22, 25-16, 25-12 win. The wins kept the Vikings perfect in conference paly with a record of 5-0.

Durand

The first set had nine tie scores throughout the contest with neither team building more than a four point lead.

Colfax had that lead at 9-5 but several errors on their part allowed the Panthers to knot things up at 11-11 then take a 12-11 lead. A kill by Marianne Scharlau tied it at 12-12 and another slam by her and two by Serena Secraw gave the Vikings a 15-12 advantage.

But three consecutive kills by Durand along with a net call and two passes from the back row that didn’t make it to the setter by Colfax gave the Panthers an 18-15 lead before Scharlau asserted herself defensively at the net and scored on a block.

Lakken Meredith served up an ace, then set Makayla Mattson up for another kill to tie the score at 18-18 and both teams had a mis-play on the ball to make it 19-19. Durand scored on a tip down the middle which was countered by a Savannah Henricks block to make it 20-20 and a Secraw serve for a point followed by a Colfax error made it 21-21.

Mattson put down another big kill going cross court but the Panthers got a nice roll off the net on a block to put the score at 22-22. Durand went up by a point on a kill shot, then missed on another kill attempt and it was 23-23 before Bryana Buchanan went to the service line.

Scharlau scored on a quick kill and Buchanan’s slicing serve resulted in a bad return by the Panthers and Colfax had the two point win.

The Vikings took a seven point lead at 12-5 in set number two in part by a pair of Scharlau kills and another by Mattson but they let the Panthers stay in the game by giving up five points to cut their lead to 12-10.

Slams by Mattson, Megan Schleusner and Erin Nellessen upped their lead to 16-11 and a cross court kill by Henricks made it 17-12.

But another mental lapse on the Vikings’ part resulted in several errors and the Panthers tied things up at 17-17, forcing Colfax coach Pam Meredith to call a time out.

Her game plan worked to perfection as daughter Lakken set Scharlau up for a quick kill, Schleusner zipped two consecutive serves over that went untouched by any Panther. Secraw scored on another cross court shot and added a kill down the sideline, Scharlau added a tip shot for a point and Schleusner’s final service ace on her eighth consecutive serve put set number two in the books.

After a 1-1 tie in the third set, Colfax put the hammer down and went on a seven point run for an 8-1 lead as Meredith scored on an ace serve, Scharlau added points on three kills with one blasting through a pair of Panther defenders, and Nellessen pushed the ball down the middle of the court for a point.

Meredith went to the service line again and before she was done it was 16-3 in the Vikings’ favor after another quick tip by Scharlau.

The lead was cut to nine at 18-9 before Secraw went to work at the service line and after an unreturnable serve, a couple more kills by the Vikings put their lead at 22-10.

Schleusner’s serve resulted in another point and Scharlau put the set and match away with a pair of solid tips that were out of reach of any Panther player.

“I think we should just skip the first set from now on and get to the second one,” coach Meredith said jokingly after the match. “For whatever reason, we have been starting off slow and are not mentally in the game. But our ability to refocus came through late in the first set and again in the second one when Durand made a run at us. Serena Secraw had somewhat of a breakout night for us with 11 kills, Megan Schleusner had five big ace serves and Kalley Hagen gave us a spark coming off the bench,” she added.

Scharlau finished with 14 kills for the Vikings, Meredith led in assists with 42 and added three ace serves and 10 digs and Mattson slammed nine kills. Buchanan came up with 17 digs, Schleusner had 16 while Nellessen added nine and Mady Decker six.

Boyceville  

The Vikings led 9-2 in the first set against the 4-0 Bulldogs but found themselves in a 14-14 tie just a few minutes later.

After getting refocused, they put things together and Scharlau put the final point away on a solid block-kill in the middle of the court.

After falling behind 10-5 in the second set, the Vikings had to dig deep to get back into the contest, and did just that as they pulled ahead 22-13. At 24-16 Scharlau plugged the middle again and put the set away with another block-kill.

Much like the third set of the Durand match, the Vikings stormed out to a big lead at 11-1, but let their opponents stay in the match as the Bulldogs closed the gap to four points. But Colfax again took care of business and finally pulled away for the big win.

Colfax scored 12 points off service aces including five by Buchanan, four from Meredith and three from Schleusner. Meredith had 29 of the team’s 30 assists in the match and the Vikings hit the floor for 62 digs, led by Buchanan with 25, Meredith with 11 and nine from Schleusner. Scharlau slammed 11 kills with three blocks, Secraw added seven kills and Henricks had six.

“Next week we play at home against two undefeated teams in the conference,” coach Meredith said. “We will need to be mentally and physically prepared from the start if we want to remain undefeated ourselves.”