Jaguars Volleyball Wins 10th Straight Playoff Opener vs Eden Valley-Watkins in Sub-5A-South Quarter's... Eve of the BIG Football Game at Minneota

The Jaguars Volleyball team takes a 27-1 record into the semi-finals of Sub-Section 5A-South, held next Tuesday at the Melrose Area High School. The Braham Bombers (16-8) will be the opponent in a match held at 7:00.

Melrose is basically a home match for B-B-E, and I hope the success we've had in that gym will only continue next Tuesday night.

**An important update on the playoff schedule...The Sub-Section 5A-South championship match time has been moved up. If the Jaguars beat Braham on Tuesday, they would then play on Thursday, October 30, at 6:00pm at the Brainerd High School. This is a very welcome change, meaning we won't be playing in the late match and getting home around midnight.

I will say that however small the chances are, that Braham still has a chance of beating our Jaguars...Make NO mistake, they will be tough. Any team that has 16 wins should be given great respect. The Bombers finished 9-3 in the 10-team Great River Conference, good for 3rd place behind Onamia (25-4 overall) and East Central (17-4 finish, they lost out tonight). They played in a tough Duluth East Invitational on September 27th.

Braham has 6 seniors on their roster. Viki Petrikova, a senior middle hitter, is one of their leading hitters as well as servers. Kat Nelson is a right outside hitter, another leading attacker for the Bombers. They have a talented sophomore hitter, Hannah Dahlman, who is a younger sister to recent boys basketball stars from Braham that most of Minnesota knows about. Maria Shockman is an outside junior hitter who has also led their team in the attack department. Allison Turnquist is their senior setter, and they run a 5-1 offense.

The Bombers started the season 4-3, and they are now on a run of 12 wins against 5 losses, including winning 6 of their last 7 matches. They have played in three 5-game matches, losing their season opener in five, and then winning five-game matches on September 4 and October 13.

Eden Valley-Watkins finishes their season 9-13 overall, including a 3-4 mark in the CMC (a 4-way tie for 3rd place). Eagles head coach Rebecca Kuechle told me that they will lose only two seniors to graduation, although one of them is a big loss...4th-year starter and basketball standout Hannah Linz.

Around Section 5A tonight, there were no big upsets to speak of. More scores will be posted below.

**A few notes about football, I caught just a bit more scouting information on Minneota tonight. This comes from a Canby football player, who stated that the Vikings are "small but quick" on the line. It makes for an intriguing matchup, as our Jaguars are not blessed with particular size on our line either.

Eighth-seeded Canby had 4th-and-goal on the one-yard line in the final minute of their quarterfinal game at Minneota on Tuesday night. A holding penalty backed them up to a fourth-and-six possession, and they could not convert to force overtime on the top-seeded Vikings.

The forecast for Saturday looks decent. What I see is a high in the upper 40s, partly sunny, and windy.

Kickoff for the Jaguars vs. Minneota Section 5A semi-final game is 3:00 on Saturday, in Minneota. Their field is heavily secluded, so I don't expect wind to be a factor.

I learned quite a bit of interesting information from a K-M-S football fan tonight. I'll add that after the result of the football game tomorrow. K-M-S travels to #2-seed Dawson-Boyd in the other semi-final game.

Section 5A volleyball scores:
-South sub-section
Bertha-Hewitt 3, Upsala 0
Braham 3, Kimball Area 0
Osakis 3, Browerville 1

-North sub-section
Barnum 3, East Central 2
Nevis 3, Menahga 0
Onamia 3, Cromwell 0
Sebeka 3, Pine River-Backus 1

The Jaguars next opponent, Braham, is 16-8 overall after posting a 3-0 win over Kimball Area tonight. The match was held in Braham, who is the #2-seed in the southeast "pod" of Sub-Section 5A-South. Kimball was the #3-seed. The Cubs finish their season 13-9, the best season in many years at Kimball. They had 11 talented juniors on their roster and will be a force in the Central Minnesota Conference in 2009.

Braham's only regular-season opponent common to our Jaguars volleyball team was Onamia, who beat the Bombers 25-17, 12-25, 15-25, 15-25 on September 18. I'll add on top of that, Braham defeated Kimball tonight by similar scores to what the Jaguars did over Kimball on October 9.

Our Jaguars defeated Onamia 25-16,25-13 at the Bethel University Showcase. Onamia is 25-4 after winning their playoff opener tonight, and they are the #1-rated team in Sub-Section 5A-North.

Other area volleyball playoff scores:
-Sub-Section 3A-North
#6-seeded K-M-S defeated #3-seeded Canby 25-19, 21-25, 25-21, 14-25, 15-12 (K-M-S is now 18-8-2 going into the sub-section semi-finals to face #2-seeded Lakeview)
Minneota 3, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 0
MACCRAY 3, Renville County West 1
Lakeview 3, Wabasso 2

-Section 6AA
Albany 3, Pierz 2
Annandale 3, Dassel-Cokato 2
Litchfield 3, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 0
Melrose 3, Holdingford 0
New London-Spicer 3, Maple Lake 0
Rocori 3, Paynesville Area 0
Sauk Centre 3, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 0
St. Cloud Cathedral 3, Little Falls 0

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