Colfax volleyball season ends season with another loss to Grantsburg

By Cara L. Dempski

GRANTSBURG — Throughout this season, the Colfax Vikings volleyball team has demonstrated time and again, the ability to overcome point and set deficits to win matches, but there would be no rally last Thursday night in Grantsburg.

The Pirates, ranked seventh in the final Division 3 state volleyball polls and seeded number one in the regional, knocked the Vikings out of the tournament in straight sets for the second consecutive year.

Grantsburg dispatched Colfax 25-22, 25-10 and 25-10 to win the October 20 WIAA Division 3 regional semifinal match played on the Lady Pirates’ home floor. The Pirates posted a three sets to none victory over the Vikings in the 2015 regional title match.

Coach Pam Meredith said the team battled back from a deficit in the first set to tie the game at 22 all before the Pirates surged ahead to take the final three points and the set.

“I thought we had gained some confidence from the comeback of set one and assumed we would start out set two with a bang,” Meredith said.

What happened instead?

The Pirates raced out of the gate in the second set and the Vikings just couldn’t find their footing against them. Meredith speculated that maybe if the Colfax squad had won the first set, they might have been able to dig deep and pull out a win in the second as well. Or maybe the team was still tired after the five-set battle two days earlier against Elk Mound.

Meredith stated,“Either way, I give credit to Grantsburg for putting the ‘pedal to the metal’ and solidifying why they are the number-one seed in our region.”

Kameri Meredith and Rachel Scharlau led the team with five kills each against Grantsburg. Bryana Buchanan switched from libero to play up front against Grantsburg and nailed four kill shots. Buchanan’s younger sister, Jozie tied with Samantha Pretasky with three kills, Savannah Henricks and Emma Hurlburt drilled in two kills apiece, and junior Makayla Mattson spiked down one.

Meredith’s stats indicate 13 of the team’s 25 kills came in the first set with only five hitting errors. The rest occurred over the other two sets, where the team racked up another 21 errors.

Jozie Buchanan assisted her team by setting up 23 scoring attacks. The Vikings served 44-45 times with five aces.

Kameri Meredith led the team with 20 digs, while Bryana Buchanan accounted for eight, Jozie Buchanan and Megan Schleusner recorded six digs, and Alyssa Dachel and Mady Decker chalked up five apiece.

Experience is a great equalizer, which is something Meredith has hinted at all season after watching her four freshman players, Kameri Meredith, Samantha Pretasky, Jozie Buchanan, and Rachel Scharlau, take on older, more mature players. In the match against Grantsburg, the four freshmen were pitted against six sophomores and a freshman.

“We talked to the girls after the Grantsburg match about what we are going to need to do individually, and as a team, in the off season if we want to be able to compete with the ‘Grantsburgs,’” Meredith stated.

Meredith had four seniors at the other end of the team’s spectrum, Bryana Buchanan, Mady Decker, Erin Nellessen and Megan Schleusner. She voiced appreciation for the efforts of the four players on defense, and praised their abilities when it was necessary for them to step into unfamiliar roles.

“This was a great group to work with, and we will miss having them in the gym every day,” Meredith said of the quartet.

She said that Buchanan is the lone four-year letter winner of the group, and finished her high school career with a total of 1,281 digs.

The Colfax coach was impressed with the overall season of her team and in the entire conference. She stated the mix of teams like Colfax, Boyceville, Elk Mound and Mondovi playing hard and competing for the conference title made each team a little better going into the post-season matches.

The Vikings finished their season with an overall record of 19-16, and were Dunn-St. Croix conference co-champions after sharing a 7-1 finish with Mondovi in the final conference standings.

The Grantsburg match was the swan song for Colfax seniors Mady Decker, Erin Nellessen, Megan Schleusner and Bryanna Buchanan.