SACRED HEART OUTLASTS CLIMAX-FISHER IN SECTION 8A TOURNAMENT

The #3 seed Sacred Heart Eagles and the #6 seed Climax-Fisher Knights volleyball teams battled on Thursday night in the Section 8A Tournament. It was an exciting match with each set providing ties, lead changes, and big runs, but it was the Sacred Heart Eagles who outlasted the Knights winning the match in four sets (23-25, 25-19, 27-25, 25-10).

First Set
It was all Knights early coming out and going on a 6-1 run to start the set, forcing an Eagles timeout. Peyton Hoffman was leading the charge early with two kills. Sacred Heart would settle in and the slow start may have been due to not playing for over a week. The Eagles would score six of the next seven points to tie the set at 7-7. The Knights pulled back in front momentarily at 9-7, but a 4-0 Sacred Heart run capped off by back-to-back kills from Emma Anvinson gave them the lead back at 11-9. The two teams would trade the lead and points for a while with neither team taking a big lead. The two teams seemed to trade points until Sacred Heart found a slight edge in front 18-16. The Eagles would get two straight points on a kill and block from Audrey Zavoral, and ride that momentum all the way to a 22-16 lead. The Knights wouldn’t quit and would go on a 3-0 run getting contributions from multiple players. After an Eagles point gave them the lead, the Knights would storm all the way back scoring the last six points to steal the opening set 25-23. Halle Reitmeier would tie the set at 23-23 with a kill, Sophia Nesvig would give the Knights the lead, and then Peyton Hoffman would end things with an ace.

Second Set
The second set got off to a 2-0 Eagles lead before the Knights would explode and pull ahead 7-3 with four kills from Peyton Hoffman. The Eagles didn’t flinch and responded with a 5-1 run to tie the set at 8-8 with their kills leader Avery Horken leading the way with two kills. The Eagles like they did in the first set, would start to build a lead after trailing 11-10. They would go on a 7-1 run highlighted by 3 kills from Ava Knudson. That gave them a 17-12 advantage. The Knights would pull within three after a block from Hoffman, but the Eagles once again rattled off a few points in a row to stay in control with a 20-14 lead. Hoffman continued her monster set with back-to-back kills to cut the deficit for the Knights down to 20-16, but Sacred Heart would pull ahead 24-18 with strong play and give themselves a set point. A Halle Reitmeier kill would fight off one set point, but Avery Horken would give the Eagles the win 25-19 with a kill of her own, tying the match at 1-1.

Third Set
Sacred Heart established an early 3-0 lead in the third set after some mistakes from the Knights. Soon it was the Eagles making the mistakes, and after Knights came back to tie the set at 7-7, they would score five straight points to take a 12-7 lead and force an Eagles timeout. Lucy Paulsrud ended the run with two straight kills. Coming out of the timeout the Eagles would score four straight points to pull within one at 12-11, but Peyton Hoffman would get a kill for the Knights to give Climax-Fisher some more breathing room. Thanks to the strong play of Hoffman, the Knights maintained a small lead going up 17-13. The Eagles would use their energy and home crowd to score three straight thanks to two kills from Avery Horken, cutting the deficit down once again to one point at 17-16. After another Hoffman kill, the Eagles would score two more to tie things at 18-18. A 3-0 run after that gave the Knights a 21-18 lead and forced the Eagles to use their last timeout. Rylee Chwialkowski would help lead the Eagles back with a couple of kills to tie the set at 21-21 and from there the teams traded points back and forth until it was 24-23 Knights with a chance to win it. The Eagles would fight off the set point, and after an Ava Knudson kill, they would have a chance to win the set in front 25-24. The Knights would also fight off a set point after a service error, but the Eagles would quickly get the next point on another Chwialkowski kill, giving them the 26-25 advantage. Avery Horken would finish things off for the Eagles with a set-winning kill, giving them an incredible 27-25 victory to pull ahead in the match 2-1.

Fourth Set
Sacred Heart sensed the opportunity to win the match in the fourth set, and came out firing on all cylinders. The Eagles would jump out to a 7-3 lead thanks to kills from Avery Horken, and Ella Adolphson. The Knights also weren’t doing themselves any favors with some unforced errors to allow the Eagles to take a big lead. Sacred Heart continued to pour it on and would score six more points off the timeout to take their largest lead in any set of the night at 13-3. Peyton Hoffman would finally put an end to twelve straight Sacred Heart Points with a kill, but the Eagles would still hold a 13-4 lead. The Knights would show some life and battle back to a 16-8 deficit, but the set would never get closer than that, and the Eagles would roll the rest of the way to a 25-10 win, winning the match in four sets and advancing to the Section 8A Quarterfinals.

Sacred Heart improves to 14-8 on the season and will play tomorrow night in the Section 8A Quarterfinals against the #2 seed in the west sub-section, the Lake of the Woods Bears. We will have the match on KROX starting with the RiverView Health prematch show at 6:30 p.m., with the first serve from Baudette at 7:00 p.m.

Climax-Fisher ends the season with a record of 13-11. They will say goodbye to just one senior, Megan Thoreson.

FOR EAGLES COACH EMILY VONASEK’S COMMENTS, CLICK BELOW

 

FOR KNIGHTS COACH BRENDA SLYT’S COMMENTS, CLICK BELOW

 

	1	2	3	4
Climax-Fisher	25	19	25	10
Sacred Heart	23	25	27	25