STEPHEN-ARGYLE STORM VOLLEYBALL FALLS IN FOUR SETS TO KCC

In a rematch from a couple weeks ago at the Ada tournament, the Stephen-Argyle Storm earned a hard-fought first set victory, but fell in the next three sets as the Kittson County Central Bearcats won the match 3-1 (23-25, 25-12, 25-10, 25-17) in a match played in Hallock. “We showed some good things at times, but there is always stuff to work on,” said the Stephen-Argyle Head Coach Karen Evans.

FIRST SET
The first set was played extremely close throughout with 13 ties, and the largest lead either team had in the set was three. Stephen-Argyle got the first point of the match on an attack error, but Kittson County Central answered with a Megan Larson kill, a Storm error, and a block from Cheyenne Scalese to take a 3-1 lead. That is when the two sides continued to trade off points. KCC was able to separate first with back-to-back kills from Jenna Davis to take a 18-15 lead. The Storm pushed back with two kills from Emma Evans and an ace from Marey Kazmierczak to cut the deficit to 19-18. “We had a lot of girls involved and I love to see all the girls succeeding. It’s great to see a team effort… It has to be,” added Coach Evans. KCC got their lead back up to 23-20 after a kills from Scalese, looking to take the first set. However, Stephen-Argyle had other ideas, going on a 5-0 run, highlighted by a Grace Carlson block and a Riley Mooney kill that ended the first set at 25-23 in favor of Stephen-Argyle. “I was pretty proud of the girls there. They stuck with it and kept on,” said Coach Evans. “I was proud of their effort.” 

SECOND SET
The second set started with a Stephen-Argyle point on a Josie Rivard kill, but the Bearcats came alive with a 7-0 run behind three kills from Cheyenne Scalese. The run was broke on a service error to make it 7-2. Three more kills from Scalese made it it 10-3. “She is a great kid and a great player and she is so fun to watch play,” said Coach Evans. Later in the set, Kira Whitlock and Rivard alternated five straight kills to keep the Storm close enough, but the Bearcats continued to open up their lead on Scalese’s seventh and eighth kills of the set and another block to make it 22-11. KCC finished the set with a kill and an ace from Morgan Turn and a big kill from Kira Whitlock to win the second set 25-12. “They were really tough at the net all night and our blocks weren’t always where they needed to be,” explained Coach Evans.

THIRD SET
Stephen-Argyle gained an early advantage at 3-2 after kills from Rivard and Mooney, as well as an ace from Tessa Durand. But again, KCC broke things open early in the set with a long 15-3 run that was highlighted by three aces from Turn, two aces from Emma Sjostrand and a couple of kills from Jenna Davis. “We struggled with our serve-receive tonight and all-in-all we have some stuff to work on,” added Coach Evans. “They are a strong group of setters so we just have to be ready for that the next time we play them.” The storm broke the long run into chunks with a kill and block coming from Grace Carlson. The largest lead of the set came at 24-8 following another two kills and a block from Scalese. Stephen-Argyle were able to notch a couple more points on another block from Carlson and kill from Rivard, but the set ended at 25-10 on yet another kill from Scalese. “Next time we will have to work to keep it away from Cheyenne so she can’t have so much fun,” joked Coach Evans.

FOURTH SET
The fourth set started much better for the Storm. They jumped out to a 7-3 lead including a 5-1 run on two kills and a block from Carlson and two kills from Macy Haugen. The Bearcats worked back into the set eventually tying it up at eight and eleven before they took back the lead with a 4-0 run on three more kills from Cheyenne Scalese and an ace from Whitlock. KCC was too strong the rest of the way despite a late push from the Storm after a kill from Tessa Durand and an ace from Macy Haugen. Kittson County Central ended the set on a 3-0 run on a kill from Jenna Davis, a Morgan Turn ace, and a kill from Kira Whitlock to win the set 25-17. “We have to take everything into consideration so you can modify and adjust so that you can come out successful the next time,” said Coach Evans. “Absolutely we will learn from this by watching some tape and apply it for the next match.”

Stephen-Argyle drops to 7-5 this season. Kittson County Central improves to 14-2.

	1	2	3	4
Stephen-Argyle	25	12	10	17
Kittson County Central	23	25	25	25