Above: Taylin Gosch sets against LSH. The senior reordered her 2000th career set assist over the weekend, extending her school record.
Since the Clipper girls first played against Le Sueur-Henderson back in 2018, they have never beaten the Giants.
That year they fell 3-2 in Cleveland. In 2019 it was a 3-0 loss on the Le Sueur court. Last year, the teams never met.
But on Monday, in a hard-fought four sets, the host Clippers finally beat their county rival. While the 2A Giants wanted to show they were boss over Class-A Cleveland and improve their 5-12 record, the Clippers sought a win over a larger school and wanted extend their winning streak in the new gym.
“They have tough competition,” said Clipper head coach Bree Meyer. “If you’re playing a single-A school, you want to pound on them. I knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.”
Emily Kern, who led the Clipper attacking force, agreed.
“This Le Sueur-Henderson team is definitely a lot better than in our class and not counting tournaments, but I think the tournament we played last weekend (at Bloomington) really helped us.”
With a couple of Kern kills, the Clippers went up front in game one 18-16. Jordyn Klingel added a kill, and the Giants served into the net for a 21-17 Clipper advantage.
The Giants went on a four-point spurt after that for a 21-21 tie. Grayce Kortuem broke the streak with a kill, but LSH tied again on attack. The Kortuem kill-Giant kill sequence repeated for a 23-23 tie, but the Giants were overzealous on the next two attacks for a 25-23 Cleveland triumph.
LSH went on a six-point run early to set the tone of game two. With attacks by Kern and Laci Hollerich, the Clipper worked their way back to a 15-15 tie. The game see-sawed from there. A Kortuem winner knotted the contest at 22, but the Clippers errored on the next three points for a 25-22 Giant win.
“They took over the momentum,” Kern said. “Their defense was really good. They dug up a ton of my hits, but as the third game came around, we knew we could come back.”
Kortuem’s ace tip was the first point of the third game. The Giants hung around though and went up 16-10, but the Clippers scored the next 13 points. With her team up 23-17, Kern tore off another kill, and the game ended 25-17 when the Giants sent the ball out of bounds.
The Giants posted the first three points of game four. The Clippers took over 8-7 after a Harley Connor kill and never looked back. Wearing out their opponents, the Clippers scored the last four points with the game ending 25-19 on an Ava Hahn ace tip.
“When we won the third game, I knew we could win the next one,” Kern said. “I knew from the beginning…our energy…everyone wanted to win that game.”
Taylin Gosch propped up 36 assists and also whacked two kills. A laser from the service line, she landed all 33 attempts with one an ace.
With 23 kills, Kern was Gosch’s favorite target. She contributed seven to the block party and had a trio of digs. Kortuem belted seven kills and put up two blocks. Connor had five kills, four blocks and a dig. Ava Hahn had four kills, seven digs and one ace serve. Hollerich had four kills and three digs. Greta Hahn made all 11 of her serve attempts and also had 11 digs.
“Greta really stepped up,” Meyer said. “She probably is one that doesn’t get the recognition, but it’s the little things she does to contribute. She’s fast and quick, and that brings up the intensity. Her serving for Emily and playing the back row helps us a lot. She is going to be our setter next year. ”
Emma Sweere scooped 30 digs. Savannah Meyer had 16 digs and was 10 for 10 from the service line. Zoe Porter uncovered eight digs.
Cleveland participated in the Class A showcase on Friday and Saturday at the Midwest Volleyball Warehouse in Bloomington. They ended in 11th place out of 16 teams. Section rival Mayer Lutheran won the tournament.
The Clippers lost to Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 15-25, 16-25, beat Kittson County Central 25-23, 23-25, 16-14, lost to Mabel-Canton 17-25, 19-25, lost to MACRAY 17-25, 19-25 and beat Fillmore Central 26-24, 26-28, 15-8.
“I think coming off of Martin County West and East Chain (GHEC/T/ML) and them Playing RTR, we were like ‘Woah. This is fast tempo.’" Meyer said. “It took us a while to catch up.”
Gosch had 101 set assists, including her career 2000th in the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton game. The senior also had 37 digs, nine kills, and eight ace serves. Kern had 59 kills, 27 digs, and 13 blocks. Sweere had 75 digs.
The Thursday before at Martin Luther in Northrop, Cleveland defeated Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther 3-1, 25-11, 18-25, 25-13, 25-13.
Kern had 17 kills, nine digs, two blocks, and three aces in the outing. Gosch had 39 set assists, three kills, four digs, and a pair of aces. Kortuem had nine kills. Sweere had 18 digs.
Cleveland 13-5, (4-0 conference) hosts Loyola on Tuesday in a 6:00 game. Wear pink for Dig’N Pink night, a fundraiser to fight breast cancer.
Emma Sweere pushes up a serve receive.
Grayce Kortuem on the dig.
Jordyn Klingel on the slam.
Savannah Meyer fields an LSH serve.
Greta Hahn pulls up a Giant serve.
Zoe Porter on the bump.
Laci Hollerich follows through after an attack.
The student section was star spangled. Cade Kriha (left) said the girls decide the dress code for the entire season (“because the boys have no choice”), and students get notification via group chat.
Hailey Plonsky was decked out for “Merica Night.”