Girls' basketball romps on opening night border battle (VIDEOS*)

*More video has been added to this blog post on Wednesday afternoon, and an area scoreboard was posted on Thursday morning.

AND SO IT BEGINS!

The highly-anticipated 2022-2023 girls' basketball season in Jaguar Country is off and running. The season opener tonight featured a bona fide border battle against Melrose Area on our home floor. The Dutchmen were 6-21 a year ago and 2-10 in the West Central Conference. Additional video clips from the game have been posted below on Wednesday. 

**Here's the team's five seniors who so graciously obliged my interview request just before they donned their jerseys and hit the court for the season opener. It is such a distinct honor to cover this team...


And as I was ill-prepared for that whole interview, I later learned that in league play the Jaguars in fact lost to Hancock last summer, but a week later at state they defeated the defending state champion Owls.

**Here's the starter introductions:


*Here's a video clip from the first half of tonight's game:


**Here's a great play when Allie Dingmann makes a three-pointer on a Tiyana Schwinghammer assist after the latter got bottled up on the right block:


Allie Dingmann's three-pointer came with 15:36 on the clock in the first half and gave the Jaguars an early 11-5 lead.

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team had an impressive showing for the season opener tonight against visiting Melrose Area. After a somewhat sluggish start, the Jaguars jumped out to a 30-16 halftime lead and played a much stronger second half with a final score of 68-35. An early 13-2 run pushed them out to a 13-5 lead in the game's first five minutes. To start the second half, the Jaguars outscored the Dutchmen 11-1 in the first 3 1/2 minutes to set the tone for the second half.

B-B-E's defense limited the Dutchmen to just 8 points in the first 11 minutes of the second half.

Abby Berge led the Jaguars with 22 points, while Harley Roering finished with 13 points after scoring seven in the first half. Tiyana Schwinghammer rebounded from a three-point first half to finish with 11 points as the third Jaguar in double figures. The senior trio also led the team with 6, 5 and 4 steals, respectively. From the floor, the Jaguars shot a solid 43 percent while making just three of 16 three-point attempts in the game. From the line, the Jaguars made 13 of 18 free shots, and a total of 10 Jaguars found the scoring column.

Next: defending conference co-champion Kimball Area looms large on the horizon as the Jaguars travel for their next game, which is one week from tonight. It's a huge game that the Jaguars are excited about! The road trip continues with a game at the other co-champion last year, Holdingford, on Friday, December 9.

I'll get more video added later on Wednesday afternoon. I managed to pull off a 16 page newspaper this week. It included 31 musical photos. No kidding.  

Area girls' basketball scores on November 29:
K-M-S 55, A-C-GC 41
New London-Spicer 70, West Central Area 43
Osakis 48, Paynesville Area 44
Dawson-Boyd 67, Benson 39
BOLD 71, Yellow Medicine East 47
Lac qui Parle Valley 68, Minnewaska Area 47
MACCRAY 60, Ortonville 15
Hutchinson 55, Litchfield 48

Hoops season underway! (VIDEO)

The 2022-2023 girls' basketball season is underway, and the B-B-E Jaguars are off and running against Melrose Area in the season and home opener tonight.

*Here's the team taking the court tonight!

With 5:38 left in the first half, the Jaguars have a 23-14 lead.

Halftime: B-B-E 30, Melrose 16. Abby Berge with 10 points leads the Jaguars at the break, and Harley Roering has 7 points.

More to come in a new blog post.

Looking ahead: speech and robotics (VIDEOS)

We have exciting seasons ahead of us in Jaguar Country with the B-B-E speech team and B-B-E Resistance Robotics getting their winter seasons underway soon. The speech team will have a turnout of about 25 which is the largest number in four years! The robotics team will be competing at the Grand Forks regional on March 9-11, and they head to LaCrosse two weeks later. I sure hope gas prices come down by then! The Bonanza Valley Voice could possibly travel to both regionals. We'll see.

And let's look back a little bit...

*Here's a video featuring the player introductions at the state tournament:


The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team faced top-seeded Minneota that day. They gave a tremendous effort and had a win within reach in both games one and two. Minneota went on to win the state title by winning a fifth set over Mayer Lutheran by an 18-16 score. Crazy. Looking ahead, and this is important, I would like as many of you out there to put December 17 on your calendar...it's less than three weeks away. What's so special about that day? WELL! That is the day that our No. 8 preseason-ranked B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team travels to No. 6 preseason-ranked Minneota for a big non-conference showdown with the defending state runners-up. To put it bluntly: the Jaguars will learn quite a bit about their chances this season when they take the court that afternoon in Minneota. *The JV game starts at 11:45 a.m., and the varsity game is set for 1 p.m. 

Here's a clip from Fergus Falls in the Section 6A finals...that seems so long ago:


Our volleyball team battled through tough teams to get to the State Final Four round. It was an unforgettable journey.

Sunday worship at West Lake Johanna church (VIDEOS**)

*Video added here on Sunday morning.

Here's the video of worship service held this past Sunday at West Lake Johanna Lutheran church in Gilchrist Township:


The reading of the lessons and then the Holy Gospel and pastor sermon all get going at the 11-minute mark of the video. Maximus Hanson's grandma Terri Anderson provides the reading.

**Here's a video from the parade in Melrose recorded from my Suburban dashboard:


The Christmas activities and parade in Melrose last night were nothing less than amazing! I even ran into head coach Chris Moscho and his family plus a handful of other folks from Jaguar Country. Everyone had a great time. The Miss Brooten Royalty had all sorts of fun. It was really great. Miss Brooten first princess Tiyana Schwinghammer led the crew in this parade. She's chomping at the bit with her fellow B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball teammates for the season opener! That's against Melrose next Tuesday night in Belgrade.

Thanksgiving Eve worship (VIDEO)

Here's the link to click on where you can watch the Thanksgiving Eve worship at Big Grove Lutheran church this past Wednesday night (short link): https://bit.ly/3ifIdqB. Deacon Brenda Handel-Johnson provided a wonderful Thanksgiving message. It is worth taking in.

Currently I'm sidetracked by watching a mind-blowing inquiry going on right now, LIVE, at this moment, in Canada. They have Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the hot seat as he is being grilled at length for what he did last winter to protesters across their country. It is fascinating: https://youtu.be/dh0Z2CioEHQ.

Time to get prepared for our trip to Melrose today. The Miss Brooten Royalty will be in their lighted Christmas parade that starts at 7:30 p.m. The whole event begins for the royalty with a Melrose royalty reception at Magnifi Financial's headquarters board room in Melrose at 3:30 p.m.

The musical reporter's scene again...and Paris (VIDEOS)

Here's two more musical clips, and these two are taken from Act II of Sunday's show.

Here's the reporter's scene starring Savannah Finken:


Here's part of the song 'Paris Holds the Key To Your Heart' during Scene I, Act II of Sunday's performance:


This show will be remembered for a long, long time. I've got 665 of my musical photos uploaded to the newspaper's photo gallery. Tonight I hope to upload the remaining photos, which number over 400. The master link to all 2022 Fine Arts photo albums by the Bonanza Valley Voice can be found at this link: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/BBEBonanza-Valley-Area-Fine-Arts-2022. **Update: the NEW official photo count from the musical shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights is now 1,186. There may be a handful of photos still not uploaded or accounted for on my cell phone.

I hope you and your family are having a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! We are experiencing tremendously great weather. The sun has been shining all day. Tonight I will be writing about and posting a video from the Thanksgiving Eve worship held last night at Big Grove Lutheran church. Deacon Brenda Handel-Johnson gave a splendid Thanksgiving-themed sermon. It's worth watching.

A quick "sports shorts" note:
The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team opens the 2022-2023 campaign with a home contest on Tuesday, November 29 against Melrose Area. A full season preview, complete with a photo of the six seniors on the team, was published in the November 27 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. We have a highly-motivated girls' basketball team chomping at the bit to get the season started! I am pumped sky high about the season opener too. The other three winter varsity sports will be previewed in the December 1 issue.

The musical reporter's scene (VIDEO)

This was just a flat out awesome and thoroughly entertaining scene to take in!

Savannah Finken starring as Countess Lily in this scene from the latter part of Act II:


More to come. I'm back in the saddle again working on digital media from the musical. I made every attempt I could to push this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper to 16 pages, but it wasn't meant to be. We got to 14 pages, and that was enough work for one issue. This week's newspaper features 26 photos from the musical. When is the last time you heard of a newspaper publishing 26 pictures from a high school play? And just imagine: I wanted to publish even more if I had an extra couple of hours to work up two more pages.

**I'll get two new musical clips posted in a new blog post on Thanksgiving Day.

Fall musical chapter concludes

We had a very emotional ending to the B-B-E fall musical chapter as the cast and crew concluded this chapter of our 2022-2023 school year with heartfelt good-byes for the three seniors last night. Anyone who's ever been a part of theater on that stage going back to when it was built in 1972 would be proud. It was really something else. You had to be there to know what I'm talking about.

UPDATE: the total of photos I've got surpasses 1,100 from the three nights of the musical! Crazy. I've dug quite a hole by taking that many pictures. I have no idea how many will make it to print. We'll see.

'Anastasia' second night Act II (iMovie VIDEO)

Here's a short highlight reel from Act II last night at Olson Auditorium:


More to come. It's time to get my electronics in order for the third and final showing of 'Anastasia'! This will be senior night when the cast and crew will honor the three beloved seniors: Dylan Hirman, Paige Klaphake and Tiyana Schwinghammer.

Upon further review, I now see that I took 444 photos on opening night of the musical. I thought the number was closer to 370 or 380.

A quick college volleyball update:
The St. Cloud State University Huskies women's volleyball team lost a mind-blowing heartbreaker in the NCAA Division II Sweet Sixteen tonight in Wayne, Nebraska. Facing the Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears, the No. 7-ranked Huskies took a 2-0 lead in sets, including a 26-24 win in the first set with a 41.5 percent hitting percentage across those two wins. The No. 3-ranked Golden Bears proceeded to pull off a very difficult reverse sweep with wins by scores of 25-19, 25-21, 15-13. In the final three sets, C-SP limited SCSU to just 12.9 percent hitting. Also crazy: C-SP came back from an 11-7 deficit in game 5 with an 8-2 run to extend their season. Kern played in all five sets and earned one kill, one ace serve to go with nine digs.

Kern is a freshmen for SCSU and part of a contingent of underclassmen who contributed heavily to this year's success. They finished 28-6 overall and one win short of the Elite 8 of the NCAA D-II national tournament. This was the deepest postseason run for an SCSU team since the 1995 squad reached the Elite 8.

Act II tonight blew me away !! (VIDEOS)

Because of our Miss Brooten royalty commmitment with the Willmar Christmas lighted parade tonight, I missed Act I of the second showing of the B-B-E fall musical Anastasia at Olson Auditorium. The timing worked out great to arrive at the high school tonight with just enough time to set up my cameras for Act II. And WOW it was worth it. Tonight's performance was a home run and then some! Act II pulls at you in many ways, giving you emotional highs and lows. The story line pins your ears back.

Musical photo count: from Acts I and II on opening night plus Act II tonight, I have 495 photos. Uffda!

***Here's a video clip from Act II tonight...this is just a small part of this scene, and it was outstanding!


The ballet dancer is Hannah Hirman, a B-B-E sophomore who was also a starter on this fall's B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team. The musical cast includes three of the 10 starters on our tennis team.

This is a video clip from late in Act II on opening night:


That four-minute clip features many of the lead characters. The storyline was beginning to wrap up in that scene called "Hotel Rooms" with the song Once Upon a December (reprise). In Saturday night's musical performance, the leads were at their best. Act II popped! I'll be working on a highlight reel after church on Sunday morning.

*Here's a clip from the fans meeting the cast and crew after Friday night's performance:


More to come in a new blog post, where I'll get a highlight reel posted from tonight's Act II performance.

Musical highlight reel! (VIDEO)

Here's a special highlight reel from last night's opening night of B-B-E's fall musical 'Anastasia' at Olson Auditorium.

VIDEO:


More to come.

**Update: the director said that as of 3:30 p.m. today, the musical has 65 presale tickets sold. I think that's great! They are expecting a lighter crowd tonight but then likely a full house tomorrow night.   

Opening night was GREAT! (VIDEOS!)

A third video was added to this blog post early Saturday afternoon. *As of 2 p.m. on Saturday, they have 61 presale tickets sold. They have many open seats to fill tonight!!! Let's do this!

That was a terrific musical performance to take in! Those who were able to see it in person at Olson Auditorium saw something quite magnificent! The fall musical 'Anastasia' lasts a full 26 scenes. The student cast and crew pulled off a tremendous feat tonight.

Here's a short clip featuring one of my favorite scenes:


**And here's a short clip from the opening scene of Act II tonight:


AND here's a video from late in Act II:


Additional coverage on opening night is posted at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website (short link): https://bit.ly/3ghyIXb. A video featuring a few highlights is included. 

Opening night of 'Anastasia' is here! (VIDEO)

Click on the following link to watch an interview with one of the seniors in the musical, Paige Klaphake: https://bit.ly/3hKYkfi.

Opening night is tonight! I hope you already knew that. They have sold 100 tickets as of 5 p.m. tonight!! That is awesome! I sure hope we can fill Olson Auditorium for at least two of the three nights! There's no reason we can't.

**Friday night intermission update: we have a very nice crowd tonight! At least 180 are in the house. Act I was terrific!!!!!

**Here's a video from one of the final scenes in Act II tonight:


I'll be repeating this over and over this weekend: don't cheat yourself out of a wonderful experience by missing this musical!!! Don't be that person. I'll be working overtime this weekend on promotion of the musical. The kids have earned it! I glanced at the B-B-E school Facebook page and only saw one musical post in the month of November among a couple dozen sports-related posts. We can all do better!

B-B-E musical cast and crew sing 'Fight Song' (VIDEOS)

They had a lot of fun with this one tonight...singing Rachel Platten's 'Fight Song' on the theater stage.

VIDEO:


B-B-E high school's Olson Auditorium was rocking tonight! The energy and enthusiasm was as high as it's ever been as the fall musical cast and crew are now within 24 hours of their opening showing of Anastasia on their theater stage.

To read more on the musical, you can click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice website: https://bit.ly/3V2YLRb. At that web article, you can find a link at the end to purchase tickets for any of the shows this weekend. You can read about 12 of the musical's cast members in the November 10 and November 17 issues of the Bonanza Valley Voice print edition. These 12 students are either new to the stage this year or they are veterans who were not profiled in the newspaper's fall 2021 musical coverage.

**Here's a clip from Wednesday night's dress rehearsal:


I hope to see you this weekend at Olson Auditorium!! *As of late Friday afternoon, 90 tickets were pre-sold for the Friday night (tonight) show...and I saw that about 38 have been sold for tomorrow night's show. The seating capacity of Olson Auditorium is over 250.

That was a fun day and night! (VIDEO)

As I type this, I am exactly 168 hours past the opening serve of the Class 1A state tournament for our B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team. The Jaguars squared off with Badger/Greenbush-Middle River at 5 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center last Thursday.

Here's video recorded a few minutes before the match started:


More to come. I have to get supper transported to the high school now for the musical students! They are holding their final dress rehearsal tonight. Tomorrow is opening night of Anastasia! Do you have your tickets ordered yet?

In college volleyball news...
B-B-E Class of 2019 graduate Emily Knight's college volleyball team opened the national playoffs tonight in Denver, Colorado. She plays with the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers, who were seeded No. 6 in the South Central Region tournament of NCAA's Division II. They won a thrilling 3-2 match over No. 3-seeded Regis. Game three was won by Knight's team by a 32-30 score, and they won game five by a 15-12 score. Next: Colorado Mines now plays the No. 9-ranked D-II team and the No. 2-seeded team in their region, West Texas A and M, at 5 p.m. tomorrow in Denver. The winner advances to the NCAA Sweet 16 and the region championship.

B-B-E Class of 2022 graduate Emily Kern's college volleyball team, St. Cloud State University, opens their journey in the NCAA Division II tournament with their region quarterfinal match tomorrow night in Wayne, Nebraska.

Fall musical group holds sneak preview for middle schoolers (VIDEO)

A super-excited Tiyana Schwinghammer runs through her fellow cast and crew members of the fall musical following the sneak preview held today at Olson Auditorium.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! 

Click: https://bit.ly/3g9QCLh.

Order your tickets online by clicking through to that web article on the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. **Show times are 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and then 5 p.m. on Sunday! (This week's print newspaper had those times mixed around on page one...a regrettable error.)

**Here's a video from Act II performed this morning at Olson Auditorium:


Please spread the word and share this information on social media as much as you are able to.

The musical is coming! The musical is coming! (VIDEO)

The fall musical is coming to Olson Auditorium at B-B-E high school. The cast and crew have been working diligently for over two months now in preparation for the big weekend! That weekend is almost here!

Below is a video clip recorded at rehearsal tonight from a scene late in Act I:


Please order your tickets! And don't be bashful about coming to more than one night! They perform at 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday (November 18-19) and then finish up with a 5 p.m. show on Sunday, November 20.

**TO ORDER TICKETS...click through to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website and find the link near the end of the web article: https://bit.ly/3EA8HLS.

Elementary state tournament pep fest (VIDEO)

Both buildings held marvelous pep fests last week for the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team, with the elementary holding their state pep fest on Wednesday and the high school on Thursday. A longer clip from the elementary pep fest is posted a few days ago on this blog.

Below is a clip from the elementary pep fest games on the gymnasium stage:


In college volleyball news...
B-B-E Class of 2022 graduate Emily Kern's St. Cloud State University Huskies pulled off an impressive weekend while claiming the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) playoff title and an automatic berth in the NCAA Division II national tournament. In the NSIC semifinals, SCSU won 3-0 over No. 8-seeded Augustana University. In the NSIC finals, SCSU won 3-2 over No. 2-seeded and No. 3-ranked Concordia-St. Paul. A crazy game five had no fewer than 8 ties, and the Huskies won the match on a stuff block by Sam Zimmerman and Makena Hollman. Most impressive was that SCSU came back from a 13-12 deficit in game five while scoring the match's final 3 points.

SCSU head coach Chad Braegelmann is now 8-1 in NSIC playoff volleyball matches for his career, and his Huskies are now back-to-back NSIC playoff champions. For his career, his college volleyball teams are 412-253 overall. He is a Rocori high school graduate from Cold Spring who earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota-Morris in the Class of 2000 (same as me!)

Against Augustana, Kern had one ace serve and 4 digs while playing in all three sets. Against C-SP, Kern played in all five sets and had one ace serve and 11 digs. SCSU reguarly plays 3 freshmen and 1 sophomore, but they also have great senior leadership and are battle-tested for the NCAAs.

No. 9-ranked SCSU (26-5) opens the national tournament at the NCAA Central Region tournament on Friday, November 18 at 5 p.m. in Wayne, Nebraska against No. 10-ranked Northwest Missouri State.

That crucial game 2 against Minneota (VIDEOS)

The Class 1A state volleyball Final Four was an incredible show to see play out. Four evenly-matched teams found their way into Friday's semifinal round: No. 1-seed Minneota, No. 2 seed Mayer Lutheran, No. 3 seed Mabel-Canton and our fifth-seeded B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team. The top seeds won, but they were tested and pushed in each match.

In game 2 against Minneota, the Jaguars were playing their hearts out while trying to even the match at one set apiece. They built an initial lead of 6-2, but then ties followed at 8-8, 9-9, 10-10, 12-12, 13-13, 14-14 and 15-15. After an ace block by Brooklyn Fischer, Minneota called a timeout trailing 16-15. The Jaguars scored three more unanswered points after that. Minneota had an ace tip for a 19-16 score, but Allie Dingmann's kill gave the Jaguars a 20-16 lead.

*See some of game 2 play out in the video below:


The video begins with the Jaguars ahead 16-15 during a timeout by Minneota, and it ends with the Vikings holding a 21-20 lead and B-B-E calling a timeout. The downward slide was one the Jaguars couldn't get out of, and Minneota ultimately scored the last 9 points of the second set to win 25-20.

In Saturday's Class 1A matches for first and third place, the top four teams went at it in separate five-game marathons. Both matches lasted over 2 hours and 15 minutes, with Minneota winning their game 5 by an 18-16 score and Mabel-Canton winning their game 5 by a 15-11 score.

*Here's a short video I shot last Thursday before the team left for St. Paul:


It's wonderful to see the huge support for our B-B-E school activities by our locally-owned businesses!!!! In that video, Coop's Corner owner Dani Davis was delivering cookies from her restaurant to the team.

**Below is a video from the elementary pep fest held on Wednesday:


The kids were singing the school song in the video.

I have been combing over my videos from the past two weeks and seeing if anything important hasn't been posted. I found this next one that features one of the most exciting moments this entire fall!

The Jaguars accept their team trophy and get mobbed by their fans at Fergus Falls after advancing to state!


This is all I can probably post for the next 24 to 48 hours. I have a big newspaper issue to get out the door before the printing press runs on Wednesday morning.

Pancakes at the Brooten American Legion

Be sure and come out if you haven't already to the Brooten American Legion Hall. They are serving a delicious pancake sausage and egg brunch until 1:00 p.m. today.

We are off to church but should get there before noon.

Step VII: roller-coaster finish to close out volleyball season (VIDEOS)

It was a match for the ages.

The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team was at the door step of closing out their season with a win. After consecutive hitting errors put the Jaguars down 22-19 in game four, Ava Mueller's kill and Brooklyn Fischer's ace serve gave the team new life. Then trailing 23-21, Mueller and Abby Berge each had kills that tied the game at 23-23. An ace block by Allie Dingmann made it three points in a row to get the Jaguars to game and match point ahead 24-23. Mabel-Canton, the tournament's No. 3 seed and the state's No. 5-ranked team in Class 1A, then tied the match at two sets each with a late ace block and ace tip to help them win 27-25.

**Here's a video from the final stretch of game four today:


**Here's a video recorded early in game one today:


This match started at 12:38 p.m. and by the time the fourth set was complete it was 2:28 p.m.

A tough start in game five was difficult for the Jaguars to overcome. After falling behind by scores of 4-1 and 6-2, the Jaguars scored two straight to make it a two-point game. Later trailing 11-5, the Jaguars again rallied with a streak of two straight points and then three straight points to narrow it to a 13-10 deficit. The Cougars then closed out the win by earning 2 of the next 3 points scored. Final: #5 Mabel-Canton 15, #11 B-B-E 11. The match lasted a full 2 hours and 15 minutes.

For the match, Mabel-Canton had a hitting percentage of 10, while B-B-E's hitting percentage was 13.5 Ava Mueller finished with 25 kills on 23.9 percent hitting, Brooklyn Fischer finished with 13 kills on 13.5 percent hitting and Adley Hagen added 11 kills on 18.2 percent hitting. Abby Berge and Harley Roering each had 29 digs, and Kylie Weller had 55 set assists.

The Jaguars earned 125 total digs, while the Cougars had 97.

B-B-E volleyball finishes one of their better seasons in school history with a final record of 26-8. They've had seasons with 27 wins, 28 wins and one with 31 wins (2008 when they went 31-3 and took fourth at state).

More to come. Video is uploading. The team is currently watching the Class 1A state championship match between Minneota and Mayer Lutheran. They are waiting for the announcing of the Wells Fargo All-Tournament team, which is coming after this match is over. Anything regarding a welcome-home ceremony won't be announced until later.

State finals update: Minneota won game one by a 25-23 score after the set was tied 23-23. 

*Minneota won the state title in a 3 to 2 marathon volleyball match against No. 2-seeded Mayer Lutheran. Final score in game five: Minneota 18, Mayer Lutheran 16. What a crazy ending. With this win, the Vikings avenge a loss in last year's state finals to the same team. 

*Update: Ava Mueller was named to the Wells Fargo All-Tournament team. This is a terrific honor for the senior who is signed with Jamestown College in North Dakota.

Just for fun! Click on the following link to see a recap with some photos from the 2008 volleyball season: https://bbejaguars.blogspot.com/2008/11/welcome-home-at-high-school-at-7pm.html.

Volleyball season conclusion nears: go get it, Jaguars!!! (VIDEO)

The crowd is filling into our side of Court 1 of Xcel Energy Center! The 11th-ranked B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team (26-7) is on the court warming up as they prepare to take on No. 5-ranked Mabel-Canton (35-3) in the Class 1A state tournament third-place game. They are locked and loaded! There is no pressure at all on today. We know the season ends with this match, and the Jaguars are gonna go out and make the most of this well-deserved and hard-earned opportunity!

*Here's a video from game 2 yesterday against Minneota. This begins with the set tied at 10-10, but then Abby Berge earns a kill:


In the Class 1A fifth-place match on this same court today, Badger/Greenbush-Middle River closed out a 3-1 win with a come-from-behind 26-24 win in game four to take the consolation championship title. Great job, Gators!

**Keep this in mind: tonight a welcome-home ceremony will take place after 5 p.m. at the high school. The estimated time of arrival back home for the team is in the 5 to 6 p.m. window. Updates will be posted as soon as I hear them on this blog post.

Match updates to follow.  TIME TO CHEER OUR HEARTS OUT for our Jaguars!!!!

The match will start at about 12:38 p.m.

GAME ONE UPDATES:
GAME ONE: the Jaguars are in a timeout and trail 11-8.

UPDATE: in game one, the Jaguars trail 18-12 after they had regained the lead at 12-11. Coach Hunter called her final timeout of the set. Final: Mabel-Canton 25, B-B-E 20.

GAME TWO FINAL: B-B-E 25, Mabel-Canton 16. The Jaguars played SO WELL in that set, and I am SO NERVOUS as we see who gains the upper hand in the upcoming third set!!!!!!!!

GAME THREE update: the Cougars are ahead 20-19. Tension is in the air!!!!

UPDATE: the Cougars are ahead 24-23 late in game three. FINAL: B-B-E 26, Mabel-Canton 24.

Game four: the Cougars are ahead 13-11. **Now the Cougars hold a 22 to 19 lead. *Final: M-C 27, B-B-E 25. Game five will start at 2:29 p.m., the last leg of this crazy roller coaster. The Jaguars had them, ahead 24-23 after Allie Dingmann's ace block. The game was tied on a hitting error, and then the Cougars earned an ace block to put them ahead 25-24. Mueller's kill tied it at 25-25, but then the Cougars got back to match point with an ace tip. Game four ended on a hitting error.

More to come in a new blog post.

Regardless of today's outcome, we love our Jaguars!

THANK YOU to Dani Davis (B-B-E Class of 2008) and Coop's Corner for sponsoring this exciting Jaguar Sports state tournament update! She proudly wore the Blue and Silver as a Jaguar student-athlete and is a proud and loyal sponsor of all B-B-E activities!

Winning at State! (VIDEOS)

Today is another very special day for our school and our volleyball program. Today we can cheer on our B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team to finishing their season on a win! This is just the third time in school history that the Jaguars will battle for the third place trophy. The other two seasons they played for third place were in 2008 and 2018. Also, this is B-B-E's seventh state tournament in volleyball. They played for fifth place in the 2010 and 2019 state tournaments.

In the 2018 state tournament, the Jaguars fell to Ada-Borup in the third-place match. I don't remember who beat us in 2008 and don't have time to look that up.

Let's experience this again!!! Below is a video featuring the final points scored in Thursday's state quarterfinal win:


Today the Jaguars take on No. 3-seeded Mabel-Canton, a school located south of Rochester. The Cougars are 35-3 overall and feature a roster with just two seniors and no juniors. They are a rock star team who will pose a strong challenge to our No. 5-seeded Jaguars. We are most certainly up for the challenge! I can't wait.

**Here's an iMovie creation by the Bonanza Valley Voice sports department from four years ago...this was after the Jaguars beat New Life Academy in the state quarterfinals:


That was Coach Kevin Weller's final season as head coach. I know he still follows the team and cheers in person any chance he gets! He was head coach from 2007 to 2018 as our fourth head volleyball coach in school history.

Remember! There's also a welcome-home ceremony after today's match at the high school. They haven't set the time yet, but I will get that time posted prior to today's match at Xcel Energy Center. The Jaguars take on Mabel-Canton at 12:30 p.m. today! Let's go Jaguars!!!

Time to head east. See you there! **Match updates in a new blog post. 

Step VI: Jaguars swept in state semis (VIDEOS)

What can be said besides: that was a very rough third set.

The 11th-ranked and No. 5-seeded B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team went into today's state semifinal match against No. 1-ranked and No. 1-seeded Minneota with the full confidence they had a shot at winning. After playing timid at times in game one, the Jaguars fired away and battled to the end in the first two sets that each ended as tight losses.

*Here's a video from game one today:


In that clip, the Vikings held a 9-7 lead after B-B-E got a kill. The Jaguars rallied to close that to a 12-11 deficit by the end of the video.

*Here's a clip featuring points scored down the stretch in game one:


That video clip ends with Minneota holding a 24-21 lead.

Game three was a difficult set to take in, and the Vikings showed why they are favored to win the tournament as they ended B-B-E's dreams of winning a state title with a 25-13 win. The Jaguars (26-7) got down 6-1 out of the gate, clawed back to an 8-5 deficit thanks in large part to two kills by Ava Mueller, but then gave up three straight points and soon found themselves in a 14-6 deficit.

SPREAD THE WORD! The Jaguars play for third place tomorrow (Saturday) at 12:30 p.m. back at Xcel Energy Center!! B-B-E will take on No. 3-seeded Mabel-Canton, who was Section 1A champions from the far southeast corner of Minnesota.

The No. 5-ranked Mabel-Canton Cougars are 35-3 overall after taking a 3-1 loss in today's semifinal round to No. 2-seeded Mayer Lutheran. The Cougars lit up the Crusaders with a 25-15 win in the first set, but Mayer Lutheran dominated from there with wins of 25-14, 25-17, 25-13. Kinley Soiney had 14 kills, and Saijal Slafter had 13 kills to lead M-C's attack.

You can click on the following link and watch a short video featuring one of Mabel-Canton's players who was recently "Player of the Week" for KTTC TV in Rochester: https://bit.ly/3Ab6vb7. The player is Sarah Morken, who is the team's setter and also the daughter of head coach Lonnie Morken. The Cougars are currently playing in their first state tournament since 2001. Sarah Morken, a sophomore, is 5'4" tall but has an incredible 27 1/2 inch vertical. Also, I read that Coach Morken is a member of the Minnesota Volleyball Hall of Fame.

Mabel-Canton has a roster featuring just two seniors and no juniors. Freshman hitter Kinley Soiney is their tallest player at 5'10". She recorded 38 kills in their section championship 3-1 win over Bethlehem Academy of Faribault. That set the new single-match record for kills in M-C history.

More to come. We just got home a little after 6 p.m. Traffic was not terrible but it wasn't that fun either on the way out of the Cities. And tonight I'm enjoying scratch cooking with some freshly-dug potatoes out of the family garden! The ground is freezing up this weekend.

In today's consolation bracket, Pine River-Backus lost 3-1 to Ely to fall out of contention for hardware.

In college volleyball news...
B-B-E Class of 2022 graduate Emily Kern had 3 digs and one ace serve for her St. Cloud State University team tonight. The Huskies (24-5 overall) pulled off a 3-0 win over No. 7-ranked Southwest Minnesota State University in their conference tournament opener. SCSU, ranked No. 9 in the nation and seeded No. 5 in the tournament, advances to take on No. 1-seeded Wayne State University tomorrow night in St. Paul.

Kern, a freshman who played in all 3 sets tonight, is B-B-E's all-time dig leader. She is one of a small group of B-B-E student-athletes to play in back-to-back team state tournaments.  

B-B-E Class of 2019 graduate Emily Knight is playing in her team's conference semifinals tonight for Boulder's Division II Colorado School of Mines. The Orediggers are ranked No. 22 in the nation and are taking on top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Metropolitican State University-Denver (26-1). Knight is one of her team's top hitters (second-most season kills thus far) and was part of last year's conference tournament champion that advanced to the NCAA Division II national tournament after beating MSU-Denver 3-2 in the conference tournament finals. *UPDATE: Knight's Orediggers won the first set 25-21! That is exciting news. The Roadrunners then evened the match with a 25-17 win in game two. Knight has one kill and 2 digs through the first two sets. UPDATE: MSU-Denver knocked Knight's Orediggers out of the conference tournament with 25-17 and 25-22 wins to close out the 3-1 set outcome. The Orediggers (21-7 overall) were right in that fourth game but fell just short of extending it to a fifth. They now await a potential at-large bid to the NCAA national tournament.

In football news...
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg led 6-0 early in tonight's state quarterfinal game against Springfield in St. Bonafacious, but the Tigers proceeded to score 28 straight points and advance to the Class 1A state semifinals with a 28-6 win. The Fighting Saints, playing in the state tournament for the first time since 2008, saw their terrific season end with an 8-3 overall record. Springfield, who led 7-6 at halftime, is 10-2 overall as they head to the U.S. Bank Stadium next week. The K-M-S secondary was battered by a 224-yard passing performance by Springfield's quarterback, Jakob Nachreinder.

**Special shout out to B-B-E's upcoming fall musical Anastasia! You can read more and also get the link to buy your tickets by clicking at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://bit.ly/3UE3Pv6.

State Volleyball FINAL FOUR round! (VIDEO, UPDATES!!)

This is the day! State Final Four! Below is a video recorded after yesterday's win. ALSO! Today you can listen to the match on Glenwood's 107.1 FM both on the radio and on their website. It's high time for our B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team to shine on the big stage!!!! THEY caN DO THIS! I can feel it.

POST-match with Coach Hunter and players at Xcel Energy Center:


Match updates against top-seeded Minneota to follow. The Vikings are 32-3 overall after winning 3-1 in their quarterfinal match. Pre-match player introductions are starting at 12:56 p.m. for the Court 1 teams (consolation bracket) before our side will be introduced. **Our match will start at about 1:03 p.m.

MATCH UDPATES:
GAME ONE and we are tied 15-15!!!! *Later in the match, Minneota has a 24-21 lead. The Jaguars were ahead 19-17 but have fallen flat since. FINAL score: Minneota 25, B-B-E 21. The Vikings ended the game on an ace block. That first set ended at 1:28 p.m., which made it a 25-minute long set. For not going into extra points, 25 minutes is a long time in volleyball for one set! That suggests the points were long, drawn-out battles. This is state-level competition! This is what the Jaguars signed up for!!

GAME TWO updates:
The Jaguars are ahead 13-12 in game two. Later, their lead expanded to 19-15 on three straight kills by Ava Mueller! *UPDATE: the Jaguars have committed three straight hitting errors to fall behind 21-20. Coach Hunter has called a timeout. We need to pull out this set!!! FINAL: Minneota 25, B-B-E 21. The Jaguars went quietly down the stretch. The Vikings scored the last 4 points of the set on ace attacks. This game ended at 1:58 p.m., so this has been going for a full 55 minutes with just two games played.

GAME THREE updates:
Minneota has a 13-6 lead in game three.

More will be posted in a NEW blog post with the final outcome.


THANK YOU to Bonanza Valley State Bank for sponsoring this Jaguars Sports state tourney update!

State Tournament PART TWO is today! (VIDEOS)

Let's go, Jaguars!!! I hope everyone in Jaguar Country is heading that way! ***I added a video from the press conferences held yesterday after the state quarterfinal win. We're at Xcel Energy Center!!!

*Here's the video featuring the final points of game one yesterday, the lone set that they lost:


**Here's the final points of game three:


More to come....later. The time to fly east is SOON. I hope we get a much bigger crowd than yesterday, although it is safe to say that yesterday's state crowd was AMAZING!!!!!!!

**Here's part of the post-match press conference with the head coach and one of the players from B/G-MR:


Time to get ready!! I am on the arena floor now waiting for the team to run out of the tunnel onto Court 2!!!!

Updates for the match will come in a NEW BLOG POST.

Step V! ! ! ! Jaguars FINAL-FOUR BOUND! (VIDEOS!)

That's right! BELIEVE IT!

For just the third time in school history, the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team is Final Four bound at the state tournament! This is a very special place for ANY team to be in ANY high school sport!

JUST FOR FUN! How about a throwback to FOUR years ago! Let's go back to the 2018 Class 1A state tournament, when the No. 3-seeded Jaguars defeated New Life Academy of Woodbury in the quarterfinal round: https://bbejaguars.blogspot.com/2018/11/step-v-win.html. Fun fact: one of the senior hitters on that team, Emily Knight, is now shining on a Top-25 Division II Colorado School of Mines Orediggers team in Boulder.

**Here's the video that features the first serve of the night plus the opening stage of game one:


**Here's a video from late in game three tonight! This was exciting!


After the tape began rolling, the Gators scored two straight points to close B-B-E's lead to 20-18. The Jaguars proceeded to score 5 of the next 7 points to claim a 25-20 win and go up 2 sets to 1.

LET'S TALK STATS:
As a team, the Jaguars had an excellent night with 95.8 percent serving. They had 8 ace serves compared to 3 by the Gators. B-B-E's serve receive was 96.1 percent compared to B/G-MR's 91.3 percent. This was a huge factor in the win. B-B-E's attack was relentless across four games, and they finished with 62 kills compared to 44 by the Gators. Ava Mueller had 22 kills, Brooklyn Fischer had 18 kills and Abby Berge had 12 kills for three Jaguars hitting in double figures. B-B-E hit at a 20 percent clip compared to B/G-MR's 15.9 percent hitting. Setter Kylie Weller piled up 57 set assists on 131 total sets, and she served 14-of-15 with two aces while adding 11 digs.

Up next: the Jaguars (26-5) play in the Class 1A state semifinals at 1 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center on Friday (tomorrow) against top-seeded Minneota. The Vikings (32-3) sent New Life Academy of Woodbury (21-12) to the consolation bracket with a 3-1 win in their quarterfinal match tonight. Game scores were 25-13, 23-25, 25-13, 25-14. Minneota had 19 percent hitting on 174 total attacks and was led by Emma Bottelberghe's 15 kills on crazy high 36.1 percent hitting (just 2 hitting errors on 36 attacks). Also in double figures for kills was Ireland Stassen, the daughter of B-B-E Class of 1996 graduate Sarah (Illies) Stassen. Ireland also had a monster hitting night with just two errors on 32 attacks for a 31.2 percent hitting mark. She was their leading setter with 22 set assists, and she had 27 digs plus two solo blocks and one block assist. Minneota's libero, Lyzha Sussner, also had 27 digs plus two ace serves.

In other side of the Class 1A bracket, No. 2-seeded Mayer Lutheran won 3-1 against Ely, while No. 3-seeded Mabel-Canton swept Pine River-Backus 25-22, 25-20, 25-15. Mayer Lutheran and M-B will meet tomorrow in the 3 p.m. state semifinal match at Xcel. I just dug up more from this bracket, and game scores between Mayer Lutheran and Ely were 25-15, 24-26, 25-12, 25-11. This was Ely's first loss of the season after coming into the tournament 29-0 overall.

I've added a couple more videos to the last blog post. You may have seen them, but feel free to go back and check them out! I am signing off now at 11:30 so I can get a proper night's sleep. Tomorrow will bring its own set of challenges with a much earlier departure time from Jaguar Country. It's another BIG BIG DAY for my sports department! Thank you to Tiyana Schwinghammer for joining my photography crew!!!! This was a TERRIBLY EXCITING DAY!!! Let's do it again tomorrow!!

GAME DAY AT STATE! (VIDEOS, UPDATES!)!!!

THE day we have waited LONG for (three years to be exact!) is finally here when we will cheer on our B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team in the Class 1A state tournament! The state tournament opponent, Badger/Greenbush-Middle River, was previewed in an earlier blog post. More was also published in this week's picture-filled Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

I've got more to post this afternoon before the match, which starts at 5 p.m. in case you haven't heard! ALSO! The match will be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood both at 107.1 FM on your radio or online at their website = https://www.kmgk1071.com.


**Here's a video featuring a good portion of today's high school volleyball pep fest:


**HERE'S the send-off from town! Police and fire department escort!!!!


More to come. *UPDATES tonight after 5 p.m. will be posted on THIS blog post. Share the link!

**HERE'S ALL OF US AT XCEL ENERGY CENTER!


MATCH UPDATES TO FOLLOW! WE ARE READY! The match will start by 5 p.m. **Here's a video with our player introductions tonight prior to the start of the match:



**Early in game one, the Jaguars trail 8 to 6. **Later, the Jaguars trail 12-7, and they are not playing at all at their level. Coach Hunter called a timeout. *Later in the game, the Jaguars trail 19-11 and are playing very poorly.

UPDATE: the Jaguars lost game one 25-22 after an exciting late rally fell short. Game 2 is starting at 5:26 p.m.

**Early in game two, the Jaguars trail 10-8. FINAL SCORE! B-B-E 25, B/G-MR 20. Here we go! Game 3 starts at 5:51 p.m.

GAME THREE: B-B-E 25, B/G-MR 20. LET'S GO, JAGUARS!!!!!!!!

GAME FOUR update = the Gators have called their second timeout with the Jaguars ahead 17-13. !!! I AM SO NERVOUS!!

*Final score, outcome, etc. in a NEW blog post!

THANK YOU TO Bonanza Valley State Bank for sponsoring this blog post and being a die-hard and loyal supporter of the newspaper's sports department and our news coverage!

Today's departure

The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team will depart for the state tournament between 11:45 a.m. and NOON today, TODAY - YES, today! Today in Belgrade, with their route going around town before leaving east on Highway 55.

Spread the word!

Pep Fest No. 1 is today (VIDEO!)

The first of two pep fests for our B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team takes place today at 2:30 p.m. at the elementary school for children grades 5 and under. The public is also invited, and you will have to check in at the office first.

That's all I've got. Time is being chewed up by many forces out there, and now it's time to get the cameras in order for this upcoming pep fest. Eventually I'll get to updating the Bonanza Valley Voice website with election results and get more volleyball information posted here.

Here's a link to read up on the musical...and order tickets! https://bit.ly/3fOvNoL. 

To see some local election results, click over to the newspaper's website with this link: https://bit.ly/3O0AEj9.

**Here's a lower-definition video recorded at the start of today's pep fest in Brooten:


I was hardly prepared for the pep fest, and right now I'm not remotely close to being ready for the opening day of the state volleyball tournament. We'll see how the night goes...

Super duper bogged down!

I have scaled back what should be a 16-page issue to 14 pages and am working through election results tonight while also getting mentally prepared for the upcoming state volleyball tournament. OH! And following musical rehearsals and continuing coverage for that group of kids...busy, busy, busy! This is nothing less than a "Super Bowl" week in Jaguar Country and it's high time to get my work done and get to sleep! 

I am excited to share the fresh news that senior Ava Mueller was selected to the Minnesota Coaches Association All-State volleyball team. This is an incredible honor! Mueller, her teammates and their coaches attended the All-State banquet tonight in the Twin Cities. They will return for school tomorrow and part of Thursday before leaving to Xcel Energy Center after Thursday's pep fest.

All your state volleyball info is here!

The school has put together this wonderful collection of state volleyball information...click over at this link to see more: https://sites.google.com/bbejaguars.org/2022statevolleyball/home.

Let's fill some fan buses!!!!!! Student tickets are just $11 which I find reasonable for an event at Xcel Energy Center.

The musical is coming! The musical is coming!

A cast and crew of 22 strong is working diligently to prepare the upcoming fall musical at Olson Theater, B-B-E high school. 'Anastasia' will be shown on November 18, 19 and 20.

I'm working on additional coverage for the musical in this week's newspaper. That's occupied a big chunk of my day so far.

You can read more on the musical in both last week's newspaper and also by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice website (short link): https://bit.ly/3Tht3h2.

**Here's an updated version of that web article with a photo from musical rehearsal today: https://bit.ly/3TjJGJ7. A video clip is also included there from today's rehearsal.

In volleyball news...
I finally looked closely at the state tournament brackets, and I see that the volleyball team will play on Friday at 1 p.m. regardless of whether they win or lose in Thursday's quarterfinal match. So we play at 5 p.m. on Thursday and then 1 p.m. on Friday for sure. Let's get a huge crowd down there and help cheer our Jaguars on to Saturday's action!!!!

Also, the school is offering spectator buses with both a coach bus option ($30 per person) and a school bus option ($10 per person) and you MUST sign up by NOON on Wednesday at either school office. Departure times are Thursday at 2 p.m. from B-B-E high school.

The elementary volleyball pep fest in Brooten will be on Wednesday, November 9 at 2:30 p.m., and the public is welcome to attend - the school cordially asks that you check in at the office first.

The high school volleyball pep fest will be held on Thursday, November 10 at 10:45 a.m., and the public is welcome to attend - the school cordially asks that you check in at the office first. BOTH pep fests will be live streamed on the B-B-E schools Facebook page.

STATE seeding! LET'S GO, JAGUARS! Bring on the Gators! (VIDEOS)

Hot off the press!

The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team opens state on Thursday, November 10 as the No. 5 seed in the tournament. They face No. 7-ranked Badger/Greenbush-Middle River in the quarterfinals at 5 p.m. in St. Paul. This is all official! I will post more after 1 p.m.  I have a lot to comb through and also have to get myself approved for state media credentials!

This afternoon I will post the MSHSL link here so people know how to order tickets.

**WIN or LOSE, the Jaguars will play on Friday at 1 p.m. in either the championship or the consolation bracket.

**I went back to the previous blog post (Step IV) and updated it with a recap of the 33-31 win in game three last night. Check that out.

EXCITING TIMES IN JAGUAR COUNTRY! I will need AT LEAST today and then some to recover from the excitement of last night's win. The adrenaline is still going.

Class 1A 2022 state tournament seeding:
1. Minneota
2. Mayer Lutheran
3. Mabel-Canton
4. Badger/Greenbush-Middle River
5. B-B-E
Unseeded are Pine River-Backus, Ely and New Life Academy.

**Here's the link to access state tournament ticket purchasing...all tickets are purchased online. I am 99.9% sure you cannot show up at the Xcel Energy Center without tickets (electronic on a device) and expect to get in. That gets above my pay grade: https://www.mshsl.org/tickets.

Delays, delays, delays...delays on state opponent scouting and blogging here as I am tied up with applying for MSHSL media credentials at Xcel Energy Center.

*I'm finally getting back to video from last night; here's Coach Hunter talking about the win last night after her Jaguars took down Henning:


**Here's an exciting video recorded on my cell phone late in game two...


B/G-MR is the Section 8A champion out of northwest Minnesota. They advanced to state by defeating Lake of the Woods in their section finals last night. They are a co-op team paired from the high schools of Greenbush-Middle River and Badger. They have seven seniors on the roster: middle hitter Jade Reese, defensive specialist Keyasha Housker, outside hitter Kinsley Hanson, setter/right hitter Honna Westlund, middle hitter Riley Gust, libero/outside hitter Hannah Bergsnev and setter Cassidy Dahl (daughter of head coach Stacy Dahl). Another of Coach Dahl's daughters is sophomore McKenzie Dahl, who is one of their key hitters. She exploded with 10 kills in their section finals match on Friday night, including six in game two. I've got more on that win over Lake of the Woods throughout this blog post.

Just saw this: Riley Gust's stats in her junior season were incredible with 323 kills, 90 blocks, 168 digs and 23 ace serves.

Also learned this: B/G-MR head coach Stacy Dahl is a veteran coach in northern Minnesota who achieved her 200th career win during the 2017 season.

The Gators are 30-2 overall and went 6-0 this year in the Polar Lights Conference. This will be another "Lights Out" and near-invincible team our Jaguars will face, just like Henning was. You can see a nice highlight reel from their Section 8A championship win over Lake of the Woods by clicking over to the MaxPreps website: https://www.maxpreps.com/mn/badger/badger-greenbush-middle-river-gators/volleyball. That match against LOTW was held at the U of M-Crookston campus. Out of 157 teams in Minnesota's Class 1A, the Gators were most recently ranked No. 4.

To advance to the section finals, B/G-MR won in four sets over Ada Borup-West in the Sub-Section 8A-West finals, which was held last Tuesday night (November 1) at Bagley high school.

Earlier this season at the Burnsville tournament, the Gators earned what I call "super high quality" wins against both No. 9-ranked Spring Grove and No. 6-ranked Kenyon-Wanamingo. They also faced stacked Top-Five teams from top-ranked Minneota and fifth-ranked Mabel-Canton, which they both lost in straight sets. I haven't been able to access game scores from that tournament, but I'll try. All that you really need to know is that B/G-MR is an extremely tough volleyball team. We will have another outstanding match to take in when we open the state tournament at the X!

September 24 was the last time the Gators took a defeat in volleyball. That was the day they fell to Minneota and Mabel-Canton in Burnsville. Every other day they've stepped on the volleyball court this fall, they were winners.

Another thing to know about the Gators is that they were a state tournament team last year. The Gators had just 3 seniors on the roster last year with 7 juniors. Those 7 juniors are now the leaders of the team. Also, to get to state, B/G-MR won in five games over Kittson County Central. The Gators lost 3-0 to Minneota in the state quarterfinals and then Legacy Christian in the consolation bracket. What does this mean? The point is that they have two matches more of recent state tournament experience than we do. A silver lining there: senior Ava Mueller was one of our top hitters as a freshmen in the last state trip in 2019.

Back in the COVID-19 season of 2020, the Gators went 8-4. In 2019, the Gators finished 19-11 with a 2-1 record in the playoffs.

Prior to 2021, B/G-MR's last section championship appearance was in 2010, when Lake of the Woods beat them 3-0 in the Section 8A finals.

Now it's time to head to Grace Lutheran church in Belgrade. Their event was published on page 4 of this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

*Sunday night update: I've added a few more videos and content to this post and the "Step IV" post tonight. My MSHSL media credentials were approved. It's been a long but successful day. We are all gearing up for an exciting, sleep-deprived week! Time to go to sleep early tonight.

Good night, Jaguar Country!