Varsity's senior quintet of Jersie Kelley, Harley Connor, Emma Sweere, Lexy Waldron and Sarena Remiger were honored after a 3-0 sweep of Martin Luther/Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman on Tuesday.
“The seniors all did a great job," said head coach Dave Nixon. “They are a great group of girls, great players and great girls to coach, and they did a good job on Senior Night.”
With the Jaguars fighting hard to stay alive, game three see-sawed most of the way.
“Every three to four points we helped them hang around a bit with some service errors and hitting errors,” said Nixon. “We weren’t able to go on a long run. That’s the only thing I would fix tonight.”
The Jaguars served an ace to pull within one, 18-17, but Waldron made a statement with a thundering kill that set the tone down the stretch.
Ava Hahn followed with a kill, and Waldron served an ace to continue the surge. Hahn dished up a couple of service aces for the last two Clipper points. The first one got a little help from the net and the last one shanked off the hands of a Jaguar defender for a 25-19 Clipper win.
Waldron and Hahn opened the match with back-to-back kills, and the Clippers scored nine of the first 11 points to take big lead early.
But the Jaguars didn’t roll over. With three kills and a service ace, they scored the next four points and then knotted the game at 11 after a series of Clipper miscues.
But a carry infraction started a five-point Clipper spurt. Up 20-18, the Clippers scored the last five points for the victory. Laci Hollerich pushed the ball over for a winner, Hahn dropped in a kill from the back row in the run, and Sweere ended the game after delivering an ace serve.
Keeping command, the Clippers scored nine of the first 11 points of game two. Trailing 19-9, the Jaguars rallied for five points, but it was all Clippers after that with a pair of Connor ace serves, a Hahn kill, and a Remiger ace tip. The game ended 25-14 on a Jaguar error.
Nixon pointed to the play of Kelley, who, starting her first game of the season, did an exceptional job preventing Jaguar points.
“Jersie made the most of the opportunity and really killed it in the back row. She was diving all over the place, keeping the ball off the floor and did a really nice job.”
Hahn led the hitters with a baker’s dozen kills. Hollerich had 11 kills. Remiger had seven kills. Waldron have five kills. Connor had four kills.
Greta Hahn set up 32 points and had a kill of her own. She also scraped 10 digs. Ava Hahn and Kelley each scooped six digs.
Waldron had seven digs. Savannah Meyer had four digs.
Hollerich, Waldron, Sweere, Meyer and Greta Hahn were prefect from behind the service line. Waldron went 10 for 10. Meyer was eight for eight. Connor dished four aces serves.
Last Thursday the Clippers swept host Martin County West in Trimont.
Ava Hahn dropped in 13 kills, tossed over three ace serves and propped up six digs. Hollerich had 11 kils and three digs. Remiger spanked seven kills. Greta Hahn had 32 set assists, one dig, one kill and one service ace.
Sweere had four digs and two ace serves. Waldron had five kills, seven digs, and a pair each of ace blocks and set assists. Connor had four kills, one ace block and four ace serves. Kelley had six digs and an ace from behind the service stripe. Meyer had four digs, and Chloe Anderson had three digs.
On Friday in Burnsville, the Clippers fell 2-0 (19-25, 24-26) to state sixth in class A Kenyon-Wanamingo and 2-1 (25-22, 17-25, 9-15) to class A number one Russell-Tyler-Ruthton.
On Saturday, they started the day off in Burnsville with a 2-0 (25-23, 25-22) win over Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda, which is ranked 12th in class A, but then lost 2-0 (21-25, 18-25) to ninth-ranked in class A Spring Grove. Later, the Clippers fell 2-1 (25-23, 20-25, 11-15) to Canby.
For the tournament, Ava Hahn had 34 kills, five ace serves, 40 digs, seven ace blocks and one set assist. Waldron had 20 kills, three ace serves, six digs, three ace blocks and one set assist. Hollerich had 10 kills, 10 digs, six ace blocks and one set assist. Remiger had 20 kills, seven digs and 15 ace blocks. Connor had 17 kills, four ace serves, 11 digs, one ace block and one set assist.
Greta Hahn had 92 set assists, 11 kills, one ace serve, 38 digs and a pair of ace blocks. Sweere had 70 digs, two ace serves and three set assists. Meyer had 40 digs, four ace serves and two set assists. Anderson had 18 digs and four set assists. Sophie Perkins had one dig.
The top-of-the-Valley varsity girls return to action on Thursday when they take on host Mankato Loyola at Fitzgerald school for Dig N’ Pink night. The Crusaders are looking for a first win in the Valley.
Sarena Remiger stretches for a hit.
Jersie Kelley steers a pass toward the net.
Chloe Anderson on the set.
Greta Hahn congratulates Lexi Waldron after Waldron hit down a winner.
Sarena Remiger had her own cheering section.
The Pep Band revved up the gym.
It was Merica night in the student section.
Laci Hollerich on the attack against MCW. (photo courtesy of Jeff Sweere)
Chloe Anderson on the bump on the Trimont floor (photo courtesy of Jeff Sweere)
Lexy Waldron goes on the attack against MCW as Greta Hahn props up a pass. (photo courtesy of Jeff Sweere)
Sarena Remiger battles at the net against MCW (photo courtesy of Jeff Sweere)
Savannah Meyer pulls up a Maverick serve. (photo courtesy of Jeff Sweere)
Libero Emma Sweere on the dig. (photo courtesy of Jeff Sweere)