Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s, behind only Buffalo-Lake-Hector-Stewart in the Tomahawk conference won game one against the host Clippers on Thursday 28-26, but it was all Clippers the rest of the way in a 3-1 triumph.
On Saturday, the Clippers cruised through the Goodhue tournament without a game loss to win the six-team competition for the second-straight year.
Tonight, they travel to Hector to take on BLHS in a match that determines who is the best team in the Tomahawk-Valley combo.
Taylor McCabe’s kill was the first Clipper point in game one against SESM. The two teams were neck-and-neck even as they crossed the wire.
McCabe swung for a winner to put the Clippers in front 24-23, but they followed with a hit out of bounds. McCabe swatted another kill, but the Clippers again hit out of bounds. Melia Sathoff tipped over a winner, but with a kill, a Clipper error and another kill, the Bulldogs won 28-26.
The Clippers started breaking away at the midpoint of game two. Jocelyn Kortuem’s fake set put them in front 14-10. Trailing 24-17, the Knights took advantage of a trio of kills, an ace serve and a Clipper hit out of bounds to win the next five points. The Knights dug up McCabe hits twice on the next point before she rolled over a winner to put a stop to the uprising and earn a 25-22 win.
“I think a lot of it was us forcing them to make plays,” said head coach Dave Nixon. “We were on top of our game. We got into our offense with passing. (Setter) Jocelyn (Kortuem) did a great job putting our hitters in position where we could get a lot of kills, and we dug a lot of balls. Our defense dug a lot of balls. That’s a really good team They really compete and don’t go away, but things were just not working for them. We got the momentum and held on to it.”
With McCabe and Sathoff taking turns on offense, the Clippers never were lagging in game three and dominated 25-12 after the game ended on back-to-back Sathoff kills.
Bewildered, the Knights let a deep Kaitlyn Flowers serve fall to the floor in the first point of game three, and again, the Clippers never trailed. Mixing it up at the net, Keira Schipper was a force in that game, and, after a McCabe kill, the Clippers won 25-16 when a Knight hit got caught in the mesh.
“Jocelyn and I really have connected recently,” said Schipper, a 5-9 junior. “When I call a quick arm, we really get going. We were hitting spots, and so our momentum kept building up while there’s was going down.”
“She’s accurate at the net. She’s a coachable kid,” Nixon said about Schipper. “She will give it everything she has and got some big kills for us. Sometimes opponents start relying so much on releasing on the outsides, and that’s when we can get some good production out of our middles because now they can’t cheat by going to our outsides. She played great.”
Sathoff totaled 21 kills, eight digs and three ace block assists. McCabe had 14 kills and 13 digs. Kortuem had 39 set assists, three kills, nine digs, one ace serve, one ace block and two ace block assists. Schipper had six kills, four digs, six ace block assists and two set assists. Aubrey Blaschko had one kill and three ace block assists. Maile Meissner had one kill, one solo ace block and a pair of ace block assists. Liviana Lee had one kill. Delaney Thompson scrapped 38 digs and set up four points. Luci Blaschko had nine digs and one ace serve. Flowers had five digs and two ace serves. The Clippers only erred on two serves.
In pool play at Goodhue, the Clippers beat Leroy Ostrander 2-0 (26-24, 25-13) and Spring Grove 2-0 (27-25, 25-21).
In bracket play, they first topped Goodhue 2-0 (25-22, 25-18). Eighth grader Natalie Flowers recorded her first varsity kill for point 24 in game one before the game ended on a Sathoff ace block.
Rushford Peterson had beaten La Crescent-Hokah once in pool play and again in bracket play. Spring Grove beat Rushford-Peterson 2-1 to earn the right to rematch the Clippers in the championship, but the Clippers won again 2-0 (25-19, 25-19) with the match ending on a McCabe kill.
Sathoff had 42 kills for a 0.323 kill efficiency, two set assists, three ace serves and was 35/35 serving. She also had 27 digs, two solo blocks and four assist blocks.
Thompson totaled five set assists, 46 digs, and was 47/48 from the service line with three aces. McCabe racked up 36 kills, 25 digs, three assist blocks and was 24/27 serving with a pair of aces.
Kortuem had four kills with a 0.267 kill efficiency, 79 set assists, 27 digs, two assist blocks and only missed one of 27 serves with four of them aces. Luci Blaschko had two kills, three set assists, 23 digs and was 23 of 25 serving one ace serve.
Schipper had eight kills, three set assists, three digs and three assist blocks. Aubrey Blaschko had four kills, two digs and one assist block. Meissner had five kills, one solo block and eight assist blocks. Flowers scooped two digs and was 16 of 18 from the service line with one ace. Lee had three kills, two digs, one solo block and one assist block.
Amelia Chmiel landed all three of her serves in bounds. Anna Lamont was seven for seven serving with one ace. She also had one dig. All four of Sierra Lotspeich’s serves were in bounds. Taylor Wolf landed her one serve. Ava Kluntz stretched for an ace block. Valentina Rohlfing hoisted a pair of digs. Natalie Flowers had one kill and one dig.
Above: The Clippers pose for a photo after winning the Goodhue tournament for the second year in a row. They include, from L-R, front row: Sierra Lotspeich, Aubrey Blaschko, Taylor McCabe, Keria Schipper, Delaney Thompson, Amelia Chmiel, Taylor Wolf, Valentina Rohlfing and Luci Blascko. Back row: Head coach Dave Nixon, Natalie Flowers, Jocelyn Kortuem, Melia Sathoff, Kaitlyn Flowers, Maile Meissner, Ava Kluntz, Livana Lee, Anna Lamont and assistant coach April Thompson.
Taylor McCabe hoists a SESM serve.
Jocelyn Kortuem dives to make a pass during the SESM match.
Kaitlyn Flowers focuses on a dig during the SESM match.
Libero Delaney Thompson bumps a pass near the net during the SESM match.
Jocelyn Kortuem, Keira Schipper and Luci Blaschko at the net during the pool play match against Spring Grove.
Taylor McCabe hits the floor for a dig during the first match against Spring Grove.
Maile Meissner watches her hit go over the net in the championship match against Spring Grove.