At the Husker's Homecoming volleyball match, the Jaguars were stung in game three with a 25-22 loss, rebounding to shell Holdingford 25-9 in game four to clinch at least a share of the Central Minnesota Conference championship for the second straight season. Holdingford is 9-11 overall and falls to 2-4 in the CMC. The Jaguars are 21-3 overall and 6-0 in the CMC.
Scores from the other three CMC matches tonight:
Kimball Area 3, Rockford 1
Maple Lake 3, Eden Valley-Watkins 1
Pierz 3, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 0
It is always exciting to win a conference championship, and this time is no different. At the beginning of the season, I honestly thought we had only about a 50% chance of repeating as conference champions. I knew Pierz, EV-W, and Maple Lake would be tough as nails...and we swept all three! This team makes a statement every time they step on the court, and the entire B-B-E community should be proud of the hustle, desire, and teamwork displayed by their efforts.
Next Monday night, the Jaguars will host Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted for Seniors' Night. It will be the final CMC match, and the Jaguars will be playing for an outright conference championship. They last earned the CMC title outright in 2003.
The final team chasing the Jaguars for the CMC crown, Maple Lake (5-1 in the CMC), is heavy favorites to win next Monday night in their conference finale. The Irish will be rooting for the HL-W-W Lakers to upset our Jaguars and give them a share of the conference hardware. The Lakers are 10-13 overall and 3-3 in the CMC, and can finish no higher than fourth place in the final standings.
Jaguars volleyball teams have now won or shared conference championships a total of seven times (1994, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2007.) They will fight on Monday night to earn it outright in 2007, equaling the conference finishes of the 1994, 2000, and 2003 squads. The Jaguars were also runners-up in 1997, 2004, and 2005. The 1994-1997 squads competed in the West Central South Conference (B-B-E switched to the CMC beginning in 1999).
The top five teams in the CMC are a combined 77-29 overall, showing that the CMC is indeed a strong volleyball conference. While it is not at the level of, say, the West Central North conference, it is one of the toughest conferences in outstate Minnesota in terms of Class 1A and small Class 2A schools. Three members are in Class 1A (B-B-E, EV-W, and Kimball), while the other four teams are Class 2A members. With the exception of Rockford, the Class 2A schools are on the lower end of the enrollment scale for Minnesota's second-largest volleyball division.
A noteworthy score to report: From Sub-Section 5A-North, the Pine River-Backus Tigers were snakebitten at Nevis (22-2-2) when they lost a 3-2 match to their fellow sub-section Tigers. PR-B (22-2) was the top-ranked team out of the other half of Section 5A, and appears as the favorite to meet up with the winner of Sub-Section 5A-South, in which our Jaguars will battle for a section berth. Pine River-Backus showed they are vulnerable with this tough loss tonight. It may not hurt them in the end, though, as losses like that tend to make very good teams re-focus and make sure they are doing the little things right that winners do on game night. This loss shows that any top-ranked team must always "show up" and play their game if the outcome is to be a win. Nevis and PR-B may very well meet again in their sub-section championship.
In girls tennis playoff action, six members of the Jaguars girls tennis team competed in the Sub-Section 5A-West individual tournament today at the New London-Spicer High School tennis courts. Details of the matches will appear in next week's local newspapers.
On Friday night, the Jaguars football team travels to Holdingford to face the 1-5 Huskers for their Homecoming game. Both teams will be searching for their first Central Minnesota Conference win of the season. The Huskers have fallen on hard times, a shadow of their former selves when they won CMC crowns on a regular basis (last done in 2003).