Among the 16 varsity volleyball girls are three pairs of sisters, but two of the tandems will break up after this season as Greta Hahn and Mariah McCabe will graduate this spring.
So it was an especially emotional Senior Night on Tuesday, when, after the Clippers swept Le Sueur-Henderson, their teammates recognized the nine seniors, seven players and two managers, with a tribute.
“You hold a special place in my heart that no one else can ever fill,” Lacey McCabe told her sister.
The group has not only led the Clippers to an outstanding season but has also been a pleasure for Dave Nixon to coach.
“They’re just great kids and fun to coach and be around and have at practice every day. They’re competitive; they want to do well and the team to do well.”
With a couple Laci Hollerich kills, the Clippers jumped out to a 5-0 start in game one. Greta Hahn’s sleight-of-hand set put the Clippers out front 8-3. Later, Ava Hahn went on a rampage with three-straight kills. Sophie Perkins followed up with a kill, and the Clippers led 17-11.
Down the stretch, Hollerich smashed another kill as did Lilly Lamont, and the game ended 25-20 on an Ava Hahn attack.
Greta Hahn’s ace serve was the first point of game two. With the game tied 6-6, the Hahn siblings mixed up the offense, and the Clipper scored nine of the next 10 points. After an Ellie Dylla ace serve, the game ended 25-15 when the Giants hit got tangled up in the net.
Game three was pretty much all orange & black. Ava Hahn’s kill was the first winner, the Clippers went up 4-0. Melia Sathoff’s kill put the Clippers in front 16-4. With an Anika Sathoff kill, the Clippers led 24-10, and the game ended 25-11 after Perkins drilled down a winner.
Ava Hahn led the attack force with 14 kills. Melia Sathoff spiked eight kills. Hollerich and Perkins each had six kills. Greta Hahn boosted 20 set assists.
Savannah Meyer hoisted 10 digs. Delaney Thompson, Chloe Anderson and Hollerich each had eight digs. Ava Hahn had seven digs. Greta Hahn had three digs, and Mariah McCabe had three digs.
Anika Sathoff and Addi Holden each had one block assist.
Dylla and the Hahn sisters each served two aces. Melia Sathoff and Hollerich each had one ace serve. Hollerich kept all 17 of her serve attempts in bounds.
On Friday and Saturday, the Clippers competed in a tournament in Marshall. They made the gold bracket and then finished 8th place overall out of 24 teams.
In pool play on Friday, they won over Murray County Central 25-21, 25-19 and then Windom 25-21, 25-19.
Saturday was a rougher as the Clippers couldn’t get their game on. They lost the first round to Cedar Mountain, a team they beat in the subsection last year, 25-20, 25-23. Then they fell to Westbrook-Walnut Grove 25-22, 25-11. Finally, they lost to Renville County West. In that match, they won the first game 24-14 but then fell 25-19 in the second game and 15-12 in the short set.
“We couldn’t finish a game,” Nixon said. “The teams we played on Saturday were all good teams, but we didn’t play as the level we expected to play.”
For the tournament, Ava Hahn had 50 kills for a 0.248 kill efficiency, two set assists, 58 digs, two solo blocks and four assist blocks and was 26 of 32 serving with six aces.
Greta Hahn totaled 100 set assists, six kills, 23 digs and missed just one of her 43 serves with four of them aces.
Meyer had 66 digs, four set assists, and was 38 for 39 from the service line with one ace.
Hollerich had 27 kills with a 0.232 kill efficiency, 11 digs and four assisted blocks.
Melia Sathoff had 15 kills, 18 digs, one solo and one assisted block, and landed all of her 32 serves in bounds with two of them aces.
Thompson was 45 of 46 from the service line with three aces. She had 37 digs and one set assist.
Anderson scooped 27 digs, put up one set assist and was 16 for 17 in serving with a pair of aces.
Jocelyn Bartell had 10 kills and a 0.290 kill efficiency, one set assist, four digs, two solo blocks and two assisted blocks. Anika Sathoff had four kills, four digs, four assisted blocks and one set assist. Perkins had four kills, one set assist, seven digs, two assisted blocks and completed all her 15 serves. Maya Lassiter had three kills, one dig and one block assist.
Lamont was nine for nine from the service line and had a pair of digs. Olivia Shouler’s one serve landed safely.
The Clippers play for the conference championship tonight (Friday) when they host Alden-Conger.
Above: The seniors were recognized after the game. They are, from L-R, front row: Greta Hahn, Chloe Anderson, Laci Hollerich and Mariah McCabe. Back: manager Madison Peterson, manager Addie Gibeau, Lilly Lamont, Ellie Dylla and Olivia Shouler.
Chloe Anderson on the scoop.
Mariah McCabe winds up for a serve.
Lilly Lamont (right) at the net.
Laci Hollerich extends for a block.
Lilly Lamont swings a hit.
Ellie Dylla on the dig.
Olvia Shouler at the service line.
For homecoming week and senior night, the girls entered the court through balloons and streamers.
Ava Hahn needed a little help at first getting through her tribute to her sister, but she recovered nicely to finish her speech.