Pine River-Backus is an all-underclassmen team who will square off with our B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team for the Section 5A championship on Saturday night.
PR-B shocked No. 9-ranked Rush City in their sub-section final in a five-set thriller on Thursday night at Little Falls prior to the B-B-E vs. Royalton match. Game scores were 16-25, 25-22, 25-16, 22-25, 15-10.
Their top guns against Rush City were Alyssa Semmler (23 kills, 4 blocks) and Bailey Wynn (13 kills, 2 blocks). Both are juniors. Emma Barchus, a sophomore libero, tallied 13 digs and eight kills. Their setter, Rylie Hirschey, is a freshmen.
In the playoff opener on October 27, Bailey Wynn led PR-B with 19 kills and seven blocks in their 3-1 win over Verndale. Emma Barchus had 31 digs, while Rylie Hirschey had 45 set assists. Alyssa Semmler had 16 kills and six blocks. Gabby Rainwater had 8 kills and 16 digs. Five players had at least one ace serve each.
PR-B played in their second straight sub-section championship on Tuesday this week. Last year, the Tigers lost 3-0 to Braham in the North finals. Players on this year's team who showed up in the stats box in the match preceding that season-ending loss, the 2016 sub-section semifinals, were Rainwater, Wynn, Semmler, Barchus and Hirschey. Semmler's older sister, Annie, was a senior setter on last year's Tigers squad.
PR-B is enjoying a renaissance in their volleyball program. They lost the playoff opener for three straight years (2013, 2014, 2015) before getting into the sub-section finals in 2016. In 2012, they won a play-in round match before losing in the sub-section quarterfinals in a 16-7 season. That year the section was loaded, and Nevis ultimately won the Section 5A title with a 3-0 win over our Jaguars in the finals. The same script played out for PR-B in 2008, 2010 and 2011. In 2009, they went 0-1 in the playoffs with a sub-section quarterfinal loss.
In 2007, the Tigers went 23-2 in the regular season, only losing to a powerhouse Wadena-Deer Creek squad at home and then at Nevis in a 3-2 barn burner. The Tigers got revenge on Nevis in the sub-section semifinals with a 3-2 win. They proceeded to beat Onamia for the sub-section crown before losing 3-1 to our B-B-E Jaguars in the section finals at Bertha-Hewitt high school. Who else remembers that night? I sure do!!!
In 2006, PR-B was a Class 2A school (just like B-B-E was), and that year they lost to Virginia in the Section 7AA championship match.
In 2005, PR-B made it to state and competed in the Class 2A state tournament. They went 0-2 just as our Jaguars did during our first trip to the big dance.
My point to all this? The Tigers had a dry spell in their playoff success - spanning from 2008 to 2015. Clearly, they want to add more exclamation points to this year's success.