Coming off a huge victory to win the conference last week, it is understandable that the varsity girls were a little on the downside on Tuesday when 5-14 Seepy Eye came to town.
Still, they managed to sweep the Indians 3-0. Game scores for the Parents’ Night, Senior Night match were 25-20, 25-14, 28-26.
“We’re still inexperienced,” said head coach Dave Nixon. “We only have four or five girls who have played a significant amount of time. You try to play at your level on your side of the net, and sometimes it’s hard to continuously, and that is why there are not a lot of really good teams. Tonight was a night where we did not play to the level we are capable of playing at. We played just well enough to win.”
A Taylor McCabe kill was the first Clipper winner of game. After the Indians swung for a kill, the Clippers scored the next five points for a 7-2 advantage. In that mix were a couple of Jocelyn Kortuem ace serves and a Maile Meissner ace block.
Later, after a Melia Sathoff cross-court kill, Sleepy Eye took advantage of three Clipper errors and an ace push to stalemate the game 9-9. With a Kortuem ace push and a Keira Schipper kill winners for Cleveland, the score teeter-tottered from there, until, leading 19-18, the Clippers put up six of the next eight points. They included a Sathoff kill, a Schipper ace block and a McCabe kill for a 25-20 triumph.
After a 2-2 tie in game two, the Clippers took the lead and never trailed. With an ace blocks and a couple of kills, Meissner was strong in the middle. Liviana Lee added a few kills too, Kortuem dished up an ace serve, and Shipper pushed over a winner. The game ended 25-19 on a Sathoff kill.
The Clippers were on their heels in most of game three but finally caught up during a four-point run that featured kills by Meissner and Sathoff for a 17-15 Clipper advantage. The teams exchanged blows from there with Sathoff and McCabe providing offensive power.
“Sleepy Eye has some good athletes,” Nixon said. “They had a ton of blocks at the net, and we were hitting a lot of balls right at the blocks, and we didn’t cover them very well.”
Ahead 24-21, the Knights almost extended the match, but instead their serve flew past the boundary line. They errored twice after, and with a McCabe kill, it was match point Clippers, 25-24.
But with back-to-back kills, the Knights switched leader positions but then hit the ball out to deadlock the game 26-26. With another Indian hit out of bounds, it was back to match point Clippers, and this time, they sealed the win with a Sathoff kill.
With 14 kills, Sathoff led the offense. McCabe had 11 kills. Kortuem, Schipper, Meissner and Lee each had three kills. Thompson had one kill.
Kortuem set up 29 points. Thompson had three set assists. Kaitlyn Flowers assisted two points while Amelia Chmiel and Sathoff each assisted one point.
Thompson scraped 16 digs. Sathoff and McCabe each had 10 digs. Kortuem scooped five digs. Flowers had three digs. Lee had two digs. Chmiel had three digs. Meissner hoisted one dig. In her first varsity game of the season, Valentina Rohlfing elevated one dig.
Meissner was a blocking machine and ended the night with two solo ace blocks and three ace block assists. Sathoff and Schipper each assisted with two blocks. McCabe, Kortuem and Aubrey Blaschko each had one block assist.
The Clippers missed five serves, but Kortuem landed all 19 of hers with a trio of them aces. Thompson had one ace serve.
The Clippers will need to get their game on tonight when they host 19-6 Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s. On Saturday, the Clippers compete in a seven-team tournament in Goodhue. They won that tournament last year.
Above: Before the match, players honored their parents by bringing them a rose and a candy treat to them in the stands. "With all three teams, I have really enjoyed coaching your daughters this season," said head coach Dave Nixon, "so I really want to thank the parents for raising some awesome kids."
A pair of defenders stretch to stop a Melia Sathoff hit.
Liviana Lee ended the night with three kills.
Setter Jocelyn Kortuem steers the ball up front.
Keira Schipper watches her hit descend on the Indian side of the court.
Taylor McCabe mixes it up with a pair of Sleepy Eye blockers.
Delaney Thompson on the dig.
Valentina Rohlfing props up a serve receive.
It was Hawaiian night in the student section. Here, Carter Kern and Anna Kawatski-Klein hold up effigies of managers Olivia Reinhardt and Mollie Bowman for Senior Night. Between them are Elija Mons and Samantha Baker.
After the match, the team honored managers Mollie Bowman and Olivia Reinhardt, who are the only Clipper seniors this year. Head coach Dave Nixon told the pair that he was grateful to them for doing all the things he is not able to do and also for keeping game stats.
Directed by Lacee Johnson, Clipper Rising Voices, a select school choir of third, fourth and fifth graders, sang the school song and Star-Spangled Banner in a debut performance.