The Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg Fighting Saints volleyball team will be a formidable opponent tonight for our B-B-E Jaguars. I rate them "tough as nails" going into the sub-section finals at Little Falls high school. The Jaguars will have to display a high level of intensity and focus in order to advance to the Section 5A finals. It will be one heck of a great match to take in!!!
K-M-S sports a 17-11 overall record. They went 5-6 in the Camden North Conference, which was good for second place behind North division champion MACCRAY (6-5, 20-11 finish).
In their semifinal match on Tuesday, the Fighting Saints systematically dismantled Browerville with a powerful attack. Haylee Johnson had the hot hand with 12 kills plus an ace block against the Tigers. Lauren Krieger and Maret Gjerde each added six kills, while Gjerde chipped in three ace serves.
The Tigers (14-11) put up a good fight in game one but lost 25-14 after getting worn down late in the set. K-M-S then won games two and three by scores of 25-12 and 25-7.
A much better match took place in K-M-S's playoff opener, when they beat Benson by a 3-1 margin in Kerkhoven on October 25. Gjerde and Halie Nichols each had two ace serves. Grace Collins had 41 set assists on a 117-for-121 effort in guiding the offense. The hitting stats were impressive: Lauren Krieger had eight kills on 26 attacks with just two hitting errors. Johnson had 11 kills on 45 attacks with just five hitting errors. Gjerde had eight kills on 28 attacks with five hitting errors. Makenna Kelley was the hot hitter that night with 16 kills on 37 attacks with just one hitting error. Katie Klaphake added five kills on 12-for-15 hitting.
Nichols had 26 digs with 15 digs from Morgan Lesteberg and also Johnson. Collins had 10 digs.
**Tonight's match starts at about 7:30 p.m. tonight. I hope you will be making the drive! The match will not be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood. If it will be on Benson radio, I'll post that as I find out.
**Radio Update! The match tonight in Little Falls will be on Benson radio, 93.5 FM. You'll have to look up their website to see if they are on TuneIn or have a web stream.
