(VIDEO) UMM v. UNW volleyball

Time for a quick shout out to the University of Minnesota-Morris Cougars volleyball team! They are headed to the 'Ship just as our B-B-E Jaguars are! The Cougars travel to St. Paul to the University of Northwestern college for the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference championship. The winner gets an automatic slot in the NCAA Division III playoffs!

For the second straight year, on identical nights, I will be keeping tabs on two volleyball matches that have a lot riding on them. First serve tonight is at 7 p.m. for both the Cougars and our Jaguars! Thanks to modern technology I'll have live stats to glance at for the UMM match in St. Paul while covering the B-B-E match live at Little Falls. It will be nerve-wracking all night long.

Footage below is from October 10, when the UMM Cougars hosted UNW in a tough 3-2 loss. They fell 15-13 in game five. The two video clips show UMM's wins in games one and two, 25-23 and 29-27.

The first clip starts with 2017 KMS graduate Tori Evenson serving. UNW lost when their leading hitter (Halvorson) hit outside the left line, as Evenson slides for a dig but then let it go for game point.

In the "kill shot" photo, UMM senior Rachel Mathis knocks an ace attack into a UNW block attempt. She is the lone senior in the UMM rotation and a huge component in their front line attack. UMM overall is a young squad, but they have been playing like a group of veteran players under first-year head coach Joe Sussegeth. He recruited B-B-E graduate Morgan Gronli to Ridgewater College before accepting the UMM job last summer.

I shanked the videocamera after game point in game two, panning away from the player celebration. Grrrr!! It was a very thrilling moment, for sure, going up 2-0 in sets.



We are very proud of this Cougars team and are excited about their chances to advance to the region tournament!!

Time for a mid-morning break for family time. This is one of the biggest days of the year for my sports department!! Probably only behind the day Adam Jaeger won a state wrestling title in March!

##ConquerEveryDay