Trifecta-Colfax volleyball team wins third straight D-SC title
ELMWOOD — With several new varsity players on the volleyball court this season, Colfax head coach Pam Meredith knew if the Vikings were going to retain their Dunn-St. Croix Conference title she was going to have to figure out a way to put the right combination of players together at the right time to be successful. She managed to do just that as Colfax went to Elmwood Oct. 13 with an undefeated record in conference play and took a three set match over the Raiders to finish 8-0, giving them their third consecutive conference championship.
After taking the first two sets 25-19, 25-14, the Vikings may have been a little too eager to celebrate as they played from behind most of the third set and remained behind most of the way. Down by as many as five points, they finally came back to knot things up at 19-19 but missed on a kill attempt to give Elmwood a 20-19 lead. The Raiders missed a serve however, and with a block-kill by Lakken Meredith, Colfax took their first lead of the set at 21-20. They finished the set, match and championship off from there with a 25-21 win.
“This was a great ending to a fantastic conference season for the Vikings,” coach Meredith said. “Our girls played pretty consistent in the final match except for the third set when we showed a lack of discipline. But this team has been very resilient all year and when they fall behind, they stay focused and just keep battling for one point at a time. It was another great offensive performance for Marianne Scharlau but Serena Secraw and Megan Schleusner have really been our clutch players as of late. Lakken Meredith continues to keep the defense guessing as she moves the ball around on her assists while Bryanna Buchanan and Erin Nellessen continue to keep our offense in rhythm with their great serve receptions and passing up to our front row players,” she added.
Secraw led the Vikings in kills with 13 while Scharlau added 12 with three solo blocks and three ace serves. Schleusner added six kills, a pair of aces and 13 digs, Buchanan led in digs with 18 to go with 14 from Secraw, 12 from Nellessen and 10 by Meredith who as usual led the team in assists with 38.
Colfax begins regional play as a number three seed on Tuesday, Oct. 22 at home against number six seed Webster. If they win, they will play the winner of number two seed St. Croix Falls vs. Glenwood City, the number seven seed.