With a sweep of visiting Wabasso, the Clipper varsity girls closed out their regular season on Tuesday. Ranked third in the north subsection, they will host sixth-ranked New Ulm Cathedral on Monday.
The win over the Rabbits took a bit of the sting out of the Clippers’ outing the Friday before, when Alden-Conger came to town and beat them to win the conference, said Greta Hahn, who had 33 set assists and 14 digs in the Wabasso match.
“We came in wanting to win the conference, obviously. Maybe we could have done a little better, but now we have to move past it and improve. This match was a lot better than how we played on Friday and a lot more fun.”
Hahn set up her sister Ava Hahn’s kill from the back court for the first point of game one and then dumped the ball into some open space on the Wabasso side of the court for a 2-0 Clipper lead. After four Wabasso errors, the Clippers were in front 6-1.
But the Rabbits mixed it up from the net to pull within one, 8-7. Later, after a kill and an ace block, they pulled ahead 14-13.
While the Clippers had a size advantage, Greta Hanh was expecting a close match with Wabasso especially since the Rabbits beat the Clippers three times during a pre-season camp at SMSU (Marshall).
“They’re a good team,” she said.
Melia Sathoff swung for kill for a 15-14 Clipper lead, but the Rabbits scored the next four points for a 18-16 advantage.
Sathoff’s ace block knotted the game at 18, and Laci Hollerich’s kill put the Clippers in front 20-18, but with a couple of Clipper errors, the Rabbits led 22-21 before contacting the net. With a double hit call on the Clippers, the game tied at 23, but Ava Hahn swung for a kill, the Rabbits sent a hit into the net, and Hollerich picked out an open spot in the Rabbit court for a 25-23 Clipper triumph.
Game two swung back and forth with neither team stringing together more than two points all the way through. After an Ava Han kill and a Jocelyn Bartell ace block, the Clippers tied the game at 22.
Wabasso kept a step ahead for the next four points until Sathoff sent down a kill and a Rabbit hit went out of bounds for a 27-26 Clipper advantage.
The Rabbits came up with a kill to tie the game at 27. Ava Hahn responded with a hit for a winner before the Clippers got caught in the net. But Ava Hahn followed a kill with an ace serve for a 30-28 Cleveland win.
The loss seemed to take it out of Wabasso as the Clippers pulled ahead 9-2 in game three and never trailed after. Hollerich thundered a kill to put an exclamation mark on the 25-17 Clipper win.
Ava Hahn had 19 kills, 10 digs and one ace block. Hollerich had nine kills. Sathoff had six kills and one ace block. Sophie Perkins had six kills, five digs and two ace blocks. Bartell had three kills and a pair of ace blocks.
Savannah Meyer (above), had 19 digs. Delaney Thompson had seven digs.
Ava Hahn served three aces. Sathoff dished up two ace serves. Hollerich and Thompson each had one ace serve. All of Greta Hahn’s 13 serves were in bounds.
The Clippers swept NUC 3-0 in their first game of the season and later 2-0 at the Waterville tournament. Tuesday’s winner will play the winner of seventh-seeded Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City vs second-seeded BOLD in Arlington on Thursday.
This year, Mayer Lutheran, the team that the Clippers lost to the last two years in the section championship, is in the north subsection and is ranked at the top. In the south, Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s is the top seed while Sleepy Eye is second.
Cedar Mountain is ranked fifth in the north and will take on fourth-seeded Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart. The Clippers beat Cedar Mountain last year to win the subsection but lost to the Cougars 2-0 in tournament play this year.
Greta Hahn out jumps her 5-4 height for a block.
Jocelyn Bartell stretches for a block.
Delany Thompson on the pass.
Laci Hollerich dukes it out at the net.
Ava Hahn watches her hit glide past a pair of Wabasso blockers.
The Clipper bench fired up the players on the floor.
It was a whiteout in the student section.