A tough four-set loss to the Irish (VIDEOS)

The Maple Lake Irish overcame what their coach dubbed an "okay" start to the match while earning a big 3-1 Central Minnesota Conference win against our B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team. For much of the last two sets, the Jaguars were their own worst enemy as they committed multiple uncharacteristic serving and hitting errors.

Game scores: 25-23, 22-25, 18-25, 21-25. Maple Lake wins for the 10th straight time. This marks B-B-E's first CMC volleyball loss since September 22, 2022. Back on that night, Eden Valley-Watkins earned an upset 3-1 win over our Jaguars on our court and later finished as co-champions with the Jaguars. B-B-E won solo CMC crowns in 2021 and 2023. Now the Jaguars have to almost for certain run the table in the CMC and finish 6-1 in order to earn a share of the conference title. They can do it!

In game one, the Jaguars burst out of the gates to built a massive 16-6 lead, only to see the Irish storm back to make a battle out of it. The Irish actually scored an 11-0 run to pull in front 17-16. They served into the net for a side out, but the Irish then scored a 5-0 run to go ahead 22-17. Kamie Fischer earned a kill for a side out, and Kacey Fischer followed that with a kill with Adley Hagen on the service line. She earned an ace serve to make it 22-20, and the Irish then hit long. Kacey Fischer hit back-to-back kills for a 23-22 lead. For the final two points, Kamie Fischer hit back-line kills to give the Jaguars a huge 25-23 come-from-behind win.

Here's video featuring the final points scored in game one tonight:


In game two, the lead changed hands multiple times before the Jaguars led 15-10 on a kill by Hagen. The Irish cut it to 16-15, and the Jaguars then pulled ahead 19-16. B-B-E later led 22-21 on an ace serve by Kacey Fischer, but the Irish stormed back to score the last 4 points and even the match at one set each in a 25-22 win.

Here's a short video clip from action late in game 2 tonight:


Once they led 22-21 at the end of that video clip, the Jaguars needed to finish strong and win game two. That did not happen, however, and errors became numerous and difficult to overcome in games three and four. The Jaguars led 6-5 in game three, but the Irish surged ahead to lead 15-9. The Jaguars could cut it no closer than a 21-17 deficit in the 25-18 loss. In game four, the Jaguars had a 9-7 lead before giving up a 6-0 run. They were unable to recover from that and fell behind 17-10 and 20-14. In the final stretch, the Jaguars cut it down to 23-20 and 24-21, but the Irish finished with a left outside kill to claim the four-set win. Maple Lake's last win over B-B-E volleyball was also a four-setter; that took place in Maple Lake on Tuesday, October 27, 2020.

In the end, all I can say is "hats off" to a very solid Maple Lake team. They did what they had to in order to leave no question who was sharper in games three and four. The Irish are led by six talented and motivated seniors who haven't seen their team defeat B-B-E in volleyball since they were in 8th grade (in the COVID season)...as it stands, B-B-E is now in a three-way tie for first place with Royalton and Maple Lake, with all three teams holding 4-1 CMC records. In a tie in fourth place are Kimball Area and Paynesville Area with a 3-2 records.

Let's talk stats...
At the service line, the Jaguars weren't too far off the mark with 89.7 percent serving, but many of their 9 service errors came at the worst time. The Jaguars did manage four solo blocks, but overall their effort at the net was not enough to slow down Maple Lake’s front line. For the match, the Jaguars hit at a cold 14.9 percent as a team. Kacey Fischer (18 kills) and Adley Hagen (11 kills) were in double figures, and other top hitters for the Jaguars included Kadynce Haider and Kamie Fischer with six kills each plus Teagan Dingmann with 5 kills.

The Irish entered the night with some great momentum and improve to 15-5 overall. They're a top 5 team at this point in Section 5AA...at last check, they are ranked No. 3 in Section 5AA by the QRF. In Class 2A, the QRF rates Maple Lake at No. 15 out of 125 schools.

Now 19-3 overall, the Jaguars have one day to regroup before they travel the short trip north to the Alexandria Invitational on Saturday.

In other volleyball news around the area...Paynesville Area had been playing terrific volleyball across the last three weeks of September. An eight-match winning streak was halted by state-ranked Annandale on Tuesday this week, with the Cardinals winning 3-0 in Annandale. The Cardinals are currently the top-ranked team in Section 5AA (QRF) ahead of Legacy Christian and Maple Lake. Tonight at Kimball Area, the Bulldogs took a tough 3-2 loss that knocked them out of second place as they fall to 3-2 in the CMC.

I need to circle back and add video to the tennis playoff blog post from earlier this evening.

Some Friday updates...
I've got a few updates posted to the Bonanza Valley Voice website. You can watch the exciting color burst that helped to wrap up the 9th annual Color FUND Run last week. The link to view that is: https://shorturl.at/MiCjY. I am still working on a light scouting report on Browerville's football team.

In another Voice website update, I added another Renaissance Festival video. You can watch the music of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/5jYCs.

Central MN Conference volleyball scores on October 3:
Kimball Area 3, Paynesville Area 2
Royalton 3, Holdingford 1
Eden Valley-Watkins 3, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 2 (the Eagles won game five 15-12 on their home floor)

Area volleyball scores on October 3:
Minnewaska Area 3, Melrose Area 0
Alexandria 3, Rocori 2
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 3, Dawson-Boyd 1
West Central Area 3, Benson 0
New London-Spicer 3, Dassel-Cokato 1
Swanville 3, Upsala 0
Sauk Centre 3, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 0
Renville County West 3, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 1
Underwood 3, Brandon-Evansville 0