I'm a little late in finally posting here after making the trek south to MACCRAY high school in Clara City tonight. Finally, after 9 p.m., I'm back in the saddle at the home office. Earlier today, I made the choice to pass on the drive east to Eden Valley-Watkins for volleyball. I took the easier path by driving to Subway in Clara City for supper with the tennis team and then an easy country drive home through Sunburg. When I got the volleyball box score, my heart sank! (More on that below.)
In a non-conference match to conclude the regular season, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team faced MACCRAY/Renville County West on the road in Clara City. The Wolverines have a varsity lineup that includes 4 seniors and 4 juniors. This compares to B-B-E's varsity lineup that has just one senior and one junior. Knowing they had a battle on their hands, the Jaguars fought with a mighty hand and pushed MACCRAY/RCW at numerous points at both singles and doubles play. With No. 1 doubles and No. 4 singles both going into third-set tiebreakers, everything broke towards the home team down the stretch as MACCRAY/RCW earned a 7-0 win.
Here's a video featuring action at No. 1 doubles today:
I'm not sure why, but I started the video saying it was No. 1 singles. That's a pretty wild mistake to make when you're watching a doubles match of tennis. Yikes!
I don't have the full set of scores from all 7 points tonight. I have notes from some of the matches from each of their sets. Losing in third-set tiebreakers were Jena Borgerding at 4-singles and Olive Olson/Kwynn Quade at 1-doubles.
Here's another video featuring action at one doubles and also two doubles tonight:
It was exciting to see Layla Tensen playing at No. 3 doubles in her second varsity action of the fall. She is one of three seventh graders who joined the team and basically saved them from ruin. The team will dramatically increase recruiting efforts in the offseason with a major goal of surpassing a turnout of 15+ for the 2027 season.
Playoffs begin for the girls' tennis team next week. That schedule won't be posted until Monday morning.
Regardless of how this fall's tennis season ends up with playoffs next week, this year's team has been far and away the youngest girls' tennis team to exist since the program was founded by the late Kay Mohr in the fall of 1992. Of the varsity line up, 9 of the 10 players will return next year. In fact, the team is so young that 8 of the existing 10 varsity players will be back two seasons from now! There's a bright future ahead for the team.
And for volleyball news...a tough night...
In a key Central Minnesota Conference match at Eden Valley-Watkins tonight, the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team put their 3-0 CMC record on the line but came up just short in the end while losing to the Eagles 3-2. This loss sends the Jaguars (8-7) into a tie for first place with EV-W (11-6) and perhaps other teams depending on how their matches went tonight.
In the loss, the Jaguars blew a 2-1 set lead. After winning easily 25-14 in game three, the Jaguars suffered a 25-19 game four loss. In the fifth set, the Eagles won 15-13.
Some light match statistics at EV-W:
Macey Roering had 20 kills to lead the Jaguars. Adding 17 kills was Laken Anderson, and Jaylee Jensen had 11 kills. McKinley Haider was 22-of-22 at the service line with 3 ace serves. B-B-E had outstanding 96 percent serving with 10 service aces. As a team, they had 19.7 percent hitting. In looking at the statistics, it's hard to see where the Jaguars faltered. However, on this night, EV-W got the breaks they needed to pull into a first-place tie.
Update: the tie in first place includes 3 teams. Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City was in a tie for second place with a 2-1 record, but they lost 3-2 tonight at Maple Lake to fall into fourth place.
More to come. I have to hit the archives for some volleyball research. It has been a long time since B-B-E lost a CMC volleyball match. My recollection is that this occurred in the 2022 season against EV-W in a home match, when the Eagles won 3-1. I have to check the archives to see if I'm right.
One of the biggest problems with losing tonight to EV-W is that it hurts the Jaguars in their quest to earn the No. 1 seed in Section 6A. That very well could still take place, but the Jaguars are going to have to rattle off a crazy hot winning streak in order to pull that off.
Lo and behold! I was right. On September 22, 2022, the EV-W Eagles came to our house and won by a 3-1 margin. The Jaguars ultimately won a share of the CMC title with a 6-1 record and shared the title with EV-W. Paynesville Area and Kimball Area both finished in a tie for third place with 5-2 records. This decade, the Jaguars have lost just 2 matches in CMC play. Besides the 2022 loss to EV-W, the Jaguars also lost to Maple Lake during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
In a CMC match for their Homecoming week, the Paynesville Area Bulldogs defeated Kimball Area to put themselves in the first-place tie. As I see it, the first-place tie now includes B-B-E, EV-W and Paynesville. What this sets up is a huge, huge CMC showdown next Tuesday, October 6 in Paynesville. On that night, our Jaguars will have to fight with everything they have in order to stay in that first-place tie.
This was a RARE night where three of the four CMC matches all went the full distance of five sets. That is crazy! See the scoreboard below.
On Friday, October 2: the Belgrade Lions will host their fall fish fry fundraiser starting at 4:30 p.m. at The Spot on main street. They serve all-you-can-eat fish until 7:30 p.m.
Central Minnesota Conference volleyball scores on October 1:
Eden Valley-Watkins 3, B-B-E 2
Maple Lake 3, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 2 (Maple Lake won game five 15-11)
Royalton 3, Holdingford 2
Paynesville Area 3, Kimball Area 0
Area volleyball scores on October 1:
Minneota 3, MACCRAY 0
Marshall Area 3, Mayer Lutheran 1
Hancock 3, Ashby 0
Osakis 3, Upsala 0
Montevideo 3, West Central Area 2
Sauk Centre 3, BOLD 0
Jackson County Central 3, New London-Spicer 1 (game scores were 19-25, 19-25, 25-23, 23-25; this was the first loss of the season for the No. 3-ranked Class 2A Wildcats)
