Colfax spikers end regular season on high note with win over Boyceville
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COLFAX senior Aubrey Rihn served the volleyball during an October 17 Dunn-St. Croix match versus Boyceville. The Vikings won the home match, 3-1. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
COLFAX — After being swept by the eventual Dunn-St. Croix Conference champion Durand-Arkansaw Panthers last Tuesday at Durand, the Colfax volleyball team regrouped and defeated Boyceville 3-1 two days later on their home court to end the regular season with a 9-18 overall record and a 2-5 record in conference play.
Durand-Arkansaw finished as the only team in the conference without a loss at 7-0.
Colfax began WIAA regional play as a number eight seed in Division 4 on Tuesday by hosting number nine seed Shell Lake. A win would advance them to play number one seed Webster this Thursday night on the Tigers home court.
Durand-Arkansaw
The Panthers won all three sets 25-20, 25-15 and 25-15 as they scored a ton of points on 37 kills and 11 ace serves.
Boyceville
The first set was knotted at 9-9 before the Bulldogs rattled off four straight points with Gretta Guy at the service line for a 13-9 lead.
Lydia Polkoski of Colfax stopped the run with a kill shot which led to five more Viking points for a 15-13 advantage. Zoey Hellendrung slammed a cross court shot and Delaney Olson added a kill and it was 15-15.
A Bulldog serving error along with an ace serve from Sierra Shipman put the Vikings back in front 17-15 but, the determined Bulldogs knotted it again at 17-17, and with slams by Audrey Malean, Chelsi Holden and Olson followed by an ace by Mercedes Barstad, another Malean kill and yet another Barstad ace, suddenly it was 23-17 in the Bulldogs favor. The Vikings battled back with three points but an Olson kill and a Viking shot in the net allowed Boyceville to take the first set 25-20.
Set number two was knotted at 1-1, 4-4, 7-7 and 8-8 before Jordyn Bowe went to the service line for Colfax and with assistance from her teammates, she helped her team pull ahead 12-8. Shipman and Polkoski both came up with kills but those were countered by Holden and Olson and it was 14-11 for Colfax.
VIKING junior Brynn Sikora (#8) hit a shot during an October 17 home volleyball match against Boyceville. Colfax won its second conference match of the season three sets to one over the Bulldogs.
—photo by Shawn DeWitt
Boyceville added a point but the next six points were all by the Vikings for a 20-12 advantage before Holden and Lillian Lain came up with a big block to stop the bleeding. The Bulldogs added three more points and it was just a four-point lead for Colfax at 20-16, and that lead was cut to two after a Hellendrung kill at 21-19. It was all Colfax from there as they scored the next four points to take the set 25-19.
The third set was close for the first half with neither team holding more than a three-point lead before the Vikings pulled ahead 11-7. After Boyceville tacked on a pair of points, Colfax used another scoring streak to move ahead 15-9 and increased the advantage to 17-10 by forcing the Bulldogs into several errors. Bowe served up an ace for a 21-15 Viking lead and a final ace gave Colfax a 25-15 third set win.
The Vikings had high hopes of ending the match with a fourth set win but, the Bulldogs were not going to make it easy. Several tie scores throughout the set kept all the players on their toes. It was 12-12 and 13-13 before Colfax put up three points by a Shipman kill, a Bulldog hitting error and a Polkoski slam down the middle of the court which put the Vikings up 16-13.
Boyceville fought back, however, and used a Colfax serving error, a Hellendrung ace and an Olson kill to knot it up. A Bulldog error and another Olson kill tied it again at 17-17, a Bulldog block and a Polkoski slam made it 18-18 and after the longest rally of the game with the ball crossing the net at least 12 times, Clara Hydukovich finally ended the point by blocking a Boyceville kill attempt.
Colfax proceeded to add four more points which included kills by Polkoski and Hydukovich before Holden stopped the run with her own kill. Another Bulldog kill cut the Colfax lead to 23-20 but another hitting error by Boyceville and a final slam from Brynn Sikora gave the Vikings the set and match at 25-20.
Hellendrung slammed 11 kills to lead the Bulldogs with four ace serves and 10 digs. Gretta Guy set her teammates up 19 times while adding four ace serves, Olson picked up 16 assists with five kills and 20 digs. Holden set down nine kills and Barstad dug the ball up 13 times.