Colfax-Elk Mound netters square off in conference match
by Marlys Kruger
COLFAX – When the week of Oct. 5 began, there were three undefeated teams left in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference, Colfax, Elk Mound and Spring Valley. With Colfax beating Spring Valley Oct. 6 in three sets, that knocked one team out. On that same night, Elk Mound had to come from behind for a five set win over Boyceville who had just one loss leaving the tables set for a huge match between the two teams on the Vikings’ home court Oct. 8. After coming from behind to defeat Elk Mound in five sets a year ago to win the conference championship, the Vikings had to come from behind yet again but prevailed in four sets 25-18, 15-25, 25-23, 25-16.
The match showcased two of the top leaders in kills in the Vikings’ Marianne Scharlau and Hannah Flatness from the Mounders. Scharlau was the first to heat up however as she scored three of the first five Colfax points, all at the net for a 5-1 lead. After Serena Wieser put down a kill for the Mounders to stop a Colfax run which put the score at 8-4 for the Vikings, Scharlau went to the service line and before she was done it was 17-4 as she served an ace and scored on a block while Serena Secraw slammed a kill. Flatness halted the run with a tip shot to the corner before Makayla Mattson smacked a winner for an 18-5 Colfax lead. The Mounders pulled themselves together and scored six straight points with help by another Wieser kill, a block by Morgan Radtke and several mis-plays by the Vikings and it was 18-11. The Mounders got within four points at 18-22 after a Flatness kill but a shot into the net on their part, a Secraw kill and a final tip off the net by Scharlau put the first set away for Colfax.
Set two was knotted at 1-1, 3-3, 5-5, 6-6, 7-7, 9-9 and 10-10, making things very interesting as Megan Schleusner, Secraw and Scharlau all scored at the net while Bryana Buchanan scored from mid-court on a kill for Colfax. Elk Mound was countering on an Allie Weber service ace and a couple of Flatness kills and after Abbey Olsen served three times with a couple of aces in the mix, Elk Mound pulled ahead 13-10. After Scharlau scored on a tip, Elk Mound went on a four point run with Madysen Borofka serving to make it 17-11 and the lead was pushed to eight points three times at 20-12, 21-13 and 22-14 after a Radtke tip, and the Mounders went to set point at 24-15, finally taking the set on a Colfax serving error.
Elk Mound carried that momentum with them into the third set and pretty much dominated as they went up by nine points early at 12-3 and 13-4, then went up by 10 at 14-4. Erin Nellessen went to the service line for the Vikings however, and came up with a couple of un-returnable shots to get the Vikings closer, down 8-14. Radtke and the Viking’s Savannah Henricks traded kills, Nellessen added one of her own then Radtke blocked a shot to make it 16-10 for the Mounders. Schleusner scored on her serve but Flatness got the point back on a kill, and after a long rally in which both teams had players hit the floor to save points on digs, Flatness put the ball away on a kill for an 18-12 advantage. Buchanan sent a kill shot over from mid-court again, Lakken Meredith used her famous tip-push shot and a Secraw kill cut the Elk Mound lead to 19-15. With Scharlau in the back row, Flatness sent a boomer down the middle but Secraw came up big again with her kill and it was 20-16 for the Mounders. Radtke scored on her own kill from mid-court, but again Colfax countered on Schleusner’s slam. With Elk Mound leading 23-18, Henricks put a kill down for the Vikings which started a seven point run. A controversial call at the net went in favor of the Vikings, a pair of Schleusner kills and several passing errors by the Mounders including one at set point that went into the net gave Colfax the two point win.
“Our passing skills at crucial times has been a problem for us this year,” Elk Mound coach Samantha Weix said. “We had a nice lead in the third set but you can’t give away points to a good team like Colfax. It doesn’t matter how good your front row players are if you can’t get the ball to them. We came up with some big plays but not enough to hold on for the set win.”
The fourth set was a nail biter again with the scored tied five times, the last time at 10-10. But Meredith scored on another tip shot, Scharlau added a pair of winners, a kill shot went long by the Mounders and a Secraw cross court kill put the Vikings up 15-11. Flatness put a kill down, Borofka served an ace and a Colfax error cut their lead to 15-14. A Meredith tip, a net serve by the Mounders and two kills from Mattson put the Vikings up 19-15 before Flatness came through again for another kill. Scharlau and Radtke traded slams to make it 20-16 but the passing game struggled again for the Mounders as they failed to get any of Secraw’s final five serves up to the setter for a kill attempt.
“This may have been a big build up between our Marianne Scharlau and their Hannah Flatness but Megan Schleusner and Serena Secraw both came up huge for us,” Colfax coach Pam Meredith said. “They had big kills that kept us in the match when things were not looking very good in the third set for us. I told the girls we are not going to play a perfect game but we had to have less errors than they did if we want to win. Our seniors kept everyone calm and we were able to survive a good test,” she added.
Flatness and Radtke combined for 26 of the Mounders 33 kills with Flatness leading with 14. Radtke had a team leading six blocks to go with her 12 kills and Wieser added four kills. Borofka assisted her teammates 17 times, Kari Jo Nigon finished with 13 assists and 20 digs, Olsen collected 20 digs and had a pair of ace serves to go with two each by Weber and Borofka.
Colfax was led by Scharlau’s 11 kills while Secraw added nine and Schleusner seven. Meredith finished with 40 assists and Schleusner came up with 30 digs.
Colfax-Spring Valley
The match turned out to be anti-climatic as the Vikings took control from the get -go gaining a 10-1 lead with Buchanan serving the first four points which included an ace, and Scharlau asserting her self with several kills. The lead increased to 12 at 16-4 as Meredith smacked a pair of ace serves and Mattson sent a kill cross court and another down the sideline. Spring Valley finally came around and began to chip away, cutting the Colfax lead to 20-16 but after a time out by Coach Meredith, the Vikings came up with several big plays to get some momentum back. Meredith and Scharlau combined to block the Cardinal hitter twice before Mattson finally put the kill down, and at 24-20, Scharlau scored on a block for the winning set point.
Set number two was a bigger challenge as the Vikings largest lead came at 16-10 but was cut to 16-14 after several hitting errors on their part. Another time out by the home team proved to be effective as Mattson came up with a huge slam down the middle of the court and Schleusner and Henricks combined for a block. Leading just 23-20 late in the match, Meredith scored at the net but the Cardinals came back to make it 24-23. Nellessen then received the serve, passed it to Meredith who set it to libero Buchanan (who can only play in the back row), who then spiked from mid-court for the winning point.
It appeared Spring Valley was a little deflated after Colfax again pulled out to a big lead early in the third set with scores of 10-2, 12-3,16-5 and 19-9 before the Cardinals made a short run and cut the lead to nine at 22-13. But a Cardinal error, an ace serve down the line by Meredith, and a final kill by Secraw made it game, set and match.
Scharlau led the Vikings in kills with 17 for the match and added three blocks with a pair of service aces. Mattson came up with eight kills, Schleusner contributed with three ace serves and six digs, Meredith added five kills, three aces, two blocks, seven digs and a team leading 36 assists. Secraw led in digs with 12 and had three kills, Buchanan finished with 11 digs and two aces while Nellessen dug the ball 10 times.
Elk Mound-Boyceville
The Mounders put themselves in a big hole when they dropped the first two sets 17-25, 22-25, then had to go to extra points to win 26-24 over the pesky Bulldogs in the third. The fourth set wasn’t much easier but they took it 25-18 to get to a fifth and final set, and they took the bite out of the Bulldogs by taking a 15-3 win for the match.
“Boyceville was a solid team and really forced us out of our system,” Weix said. “We made a lot of mistakes and didn’t play smart volleyball the first couple of sets. But halfway through we found our groove and by the fifth set the momentum was on our side and we didn’t let up.”
Flatness slammed 22 kills and had a pair of blocks, Radtke added 10 kills and also two blocks, Olsen collected 27 digs with a pair of service aces, Nigon set her teammates up 25 times and added 12 digs, Wieser came up with 15 digs while Borofka had 17 assists.
Conference play concludes Oct. 13 with Elk Mound hosting Spring Valley and Colfax traveling to Elmwood.