Vikings sweep Mondovi then end season with regional semifinal loss to McDonell Central
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FINAL TEAMWORK — McKenna Shipman set fellow Colfax teammate Jeanette Hydukovich up for a kill attempt in the regional game at McDonell Central October 19. The two seniors have run this play hundreds of times over the past four years but the Vikings lost in three sets to end their season. —photo by Marlys Kruger
by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
The Colfax volleyball team began WIAA regional play with a home game against Dunn-St. Croix Conference opponent Mondovi Tuesday, October 17. The match turned out to be a repeat of their match exactly one week earlier when they swept the Buffaloes in a conference contest. The Vikings used a strong defense which included 57 digs, along with a well balanced offense with three players all recording five kills as they won 25-9, 27-25, 25-13. Two days later, the Viking spikers traveled to Chippewa Falls to take on the reigning Division 4 state champion McDonell Central team and put up quite a battle before being swept by the Macks 25-19, 25-17, 25-15.
Mondovi
Colfax came out on fire, winning the first seven points of the first set with a Jeanette Hydukovich tip-kill, a Jada Anderson ace serve, another Hydukovich kill, a Mondovi error, another Anderson ace and a cross court smash by Lydia Polkoski.
Colfax continued to pull away with help from a pair of Anderson smashes for a 14-6 advantage and after McKenna Shipman served up a few points it was 16-6. The Buffaloes picked up two points but a string of five points with Anderson at the service line upped the Viking lead to 21-8 and after it reached 23-9, Polkoski blocked a shot and Hydukovich served up an ace to put the set away.
Set number two started out close, but with the score 6-5 for the Vikings, the Buffaloes appeared to get rattled with Brynn Sikora serving. Mondovi mis-played six balls in a row, allowing the Vikings to jump ahead 12-5.The lead was as high as eight points twice at 21-13 after an Aubrey Rihn kill, and 22-14 when Polkoski used a one-hand save to help earn a point. But something kicked in for the Buffaloes as they used a couple of big kills along with some Viking errors to rattle off six straight points to cut the Colfax lead to 22-20.
The set ended up tied at 23-23 and 24-24 before the Vikings went up on one of the Buffaloes seven serving errors in the match. But, a Colfax block went out of bounds and it was knotted at 25-25. Mondovi missed another serve and Hydukovich put the set away on a huge block in the middle of the net.
The loss seemed to take the wind out of the Buffaloes’ sails as Colfax completely controlled the third set. Colfax held leads of 10-3 and 11-4 and used a five point run to go up 16-4. A Shipman kill made it 17-7 and with help from more slams by Hydukovich and Sikora, it was 23-13. Sikora added a tip shot at the net and Rihn put the set and match away with a point at the net.
Anderson, Sikora and Hydukovich all had five kills in the match. Shipman smacked three kills and was the assist leader with ten while picking up seven digs. Anderson led the team in ace serves with five and in digs with 19, while Ava Sedivy and Sikora both picked up six digs and Rihn five. Jordyn Bowe set her teammates up seven times and Hydukovich had four of the Viking blocks in the contest.
McDonell Central
The Macks won the Division 4 state tournament a year ago but their enrollment increased from 180 students to 206 this year, moving them up to Division 3.
They sported a 41-0 record which included a 7-0 record to win the Cloverbelt West Conference. Ten of the players on their 15-person roster were seniors indicating they had plenty of experience in pressure games.
After a Mack kill to start set one, three Viking kill attempts went into the net, putting the Macks ahead 4-0.
Colfax knotted the score at 7-7 after Rihn zipped a pair of ace serves over the net and a block by Anderson and Hydukovich tied it again at 8-8. The Vikings pulled ahead 11-9 but six straight points by McDonell put the Vikings in a deep hole.
COLFAX libero Emma Medin received a Mondovi serve in the regional game played October 19 in Colfax. The Vikings defeated the Buffaloes in three sets. —photo by Marlys Kruger
The Vikings battled back however, getting as close as four points, down 22-18 but they couldn’t get any closer and a huge kill attempt by Colfax landed out of bounds to give McDonell the first set.
Back-to-back Sikora slams tied the score at 3-3 early in the second set, but once again several net errors by the Vikings and a couple of big hits by the Macks allowed McDonell to pull ahead 9-3.
Colfax bounced back again when Rihn went to the service line and sent over a few unreturnable serves, and along with a Hydukovich kill and her combination block with Shipman, the Vikings were back in the set, down 12-11. After two more Hydukovich blocks they were within a point twice, down 13-12 and 14-13 but the experience Mack team wouldn’t allow them to get over the hump.
Colfax stayed within two points as they were behind 17-15 and 18-16 but several tips and kills put the match at set point and the Vikings missed a kill attempt and the Macks had set two.
After falling behind 5-1 in the third set, Colfax stayed within 3-4 points for a while but eventually fell behind 19-11.
Anderson came up with a smash and Hydukovich added a push shot to bring Colfax back a bit, down 19-13, but they only managed to score two more points and a final slam by the Macks ended the match.
Colfax will say goodbye to 10 seniors including, McKenna Shipman, Anika Hallquist, Meadow Keltner, Nathali Cuaquehhua, Amy Wenzel, Jada Anderson, Alexis Schindler, Jeanette Hydukovich, Kennedy Shane and Mackenzi Loback.