The Superior Express -

Go figure . . .

The highest seeded team (Silver Lake) in the Class D2-6 Sub-district tournament played the lowest seeded team (Franklin). This was the 4th meeting of the schools this season and Silver Lake won the first three games.

Go figure . . .

Franklin pulled off the upset giving credence to the old wives tale: "It's tough to beat a team four times in a season."

Then . . . in the championship game of the Sub-district our L-N Lady Raiders played Franklin knowing full well of Franklin's win over Silver Lake and also aware this game would be its third game of the season against Franklin, having won the first two games of the season.

Go figure . . . In the first two sets of the championship game, Franklin played like Tigers and easily won. Then everyone saw what a "comeback" looks like. The Lady Raiders settled in, cut down on bad hits, discovered they could block and found they could hit Ace serves. They also proved another old wives tale: "It's tough to beat a team three times in a season."

Go figure . . .

L-N fans got to enjoy a 3-2 Set victory over Franklin, winning the Sub-district and earning the right to continue in the Playoffs.

The scores give a hit of the excitement of the night: 17-25, 19-25, 25-17, 26-24, 15-9.

Set 1: 17-25: Excitement can be either positive or negative and the beginning of the evening was not good as L-N was soon down by a score of 2-10. From there on, however, L-N matched Franklin point for point as each scored 15 points. Franklin's early scoring run put L-N at a disadvantage and L-N had trouble recording Kills and could not record an Ace Serve in this Set.

Set 2: 19-25: This Set was probably closer than the score indicates as the Set featured a number of small volleys the results of which were split between the teams. The score was tied at 14-14 before Franklin managed a seven point scoring run. L-N still did have record an Ace Serve, but Emma, Sydney and Kara, all started recording Kills for the Raider team.

Set 3: 25-17: The teams relaxed somewhat (or so it seemed) and played good volleyball. Franklin scored first, but L-N soon gained the lead on an Elsa Jorgensen Ace Serve and kept the lead the rest of the Set. There were few long volleys in this Set until the end with Franklin winning one volley and L-N winning the final one of the Set when Sydney slammed down a Kill for the 25th point.

Set 4: 26-24: Overtime . . . Go figure . . . A fan "just knew" there would be an overtime period in this game and he was correct. This Set was a lulu. L-N scored first and led (or was tied) the whole Set. Now the score was tied ten times (the first time at 1-1 and the last time at 24-24). Each team had a five point scoring run and Franklin found their Ace serves. However, good things were happening on the Raider side of the net as well: Elsa found her Ace serve; Sydney and Kylie got their Blocking routine in gear; Kara, Emma and Aleah all got in 'Kills'; everyone found their jobs, and . . . they did them well.

L-N's final point came on a Kara Menke Kill.

Set 5: 15-9: OK, you've played 30 games so far this season, traveled many miles and faced a predominance of larger schools through the season and whether or not you continue to play this season comes down to who can score 15 more points first.

The fifth Set began with Aleah recording a Kill, a couple of Raiders combined on a block and Franklin hit a ball out-of-bounds and L-N was up 3-0. Franklin did not give up the game either and soon the Raiders led by one point 9-8. From there on, however, L-N controlled the Set earning a 6-1 scoring run with several kills by Aleah, the (one and only) ace serve in the Set by Kylie, Kills by Emma and Kara.

The result was a Sub-District championship and the ability to continue playing in the State Playoff system. Details for the District games is unknown at this point.

(Kills, Ace, Digs) Sydney Biltoft 3, 0, 0; Aleah Heikkinen 11, 0, 12; Emma Epley 17, 0, 5; Elsa Jorgensen 0, 2, 15; Katelyn Mazour 4, 0, 12; Emily Troudt 0, 0, 2; Hanna Skinner 0, 0, 7; Kylie Beard 6, 2, 1; Kara Menke 17, 0, 8.

Assists: Katelyn 30, Emma 19.

Blocks: (Solo-Assists) Sydney 3-4, Aleah 0-2, Emma 0-2, Kylie 0-3, Kara 0-1.

Coaches are human too . . .So often coaches come across as people always urging their teams on to greater efforts. However, they do take the time to smile as they are in this picture following the Lawrence-Nelson Lady Raiders Sub-district win over Franklin giving them the right to move on towards a possible State Tournament berth. (Photo courtesy of Denise Mazour.)

Serve Receive: Elsa 34 of 35; Aleah 24-25; Hanna 19-20.

L-N – WILCOX-HILDRETH: 25-18, 25-11, 25-12: In the first game for the No.2 Seed, L-N, the opponent was No. 3 Seed Wilcox-Hildreth (W-H).

As you might guess by the scores, the Lady Raiders played a very steady game, doing well in most categories of statistics. They eliminated errors in Serve Receptions and Kill attempts while getting hands up for blocking and recording six ace serves.

Expectations for the girls were for them to win and then meet the No. 1 Seed, Silver Lake the next night, but that got changed when No. 4 Seed Franklin defeated the No. 1 team in the Sub-district.

(Kills, Ace, Digs) Sydney Biltoft 9, 0, 2; Aleah Heikkinen 5, 0, 15; Emma Epley 10, 2, 5; Elsa Jorgensen 0, 2, 6; Katelyn Mazour 1, 1, 0; Emily Troudt 1, 0, 0; Hanna Skinner 0, 1, 5; Kylie Beard 2, 0, 3; Kara Menke 5, 0, 0;

Assists: Katelyn 27.

Blocks: (Solo-Assists) Sydney 0-5, Aleah 0-2, Emma 1-2, Emily 1-1, Kylie 0-2, Kara 0-2.

Serve Receive: Elsa 12-12, Aleah 12-12.