There was plenty of exciting high school volleyball action last week as the Red Rock Conference and Section 3A South champion Adrian Dragons played three matches and Murray County Central tangled with Tracy-Milroy-Balaton in a five-set thriller at Worthington last Tuesday (October 29).
Top-seeded Adrian won in four sets over fifth-seeded Westbrook-Walnut Grove in the first semifinal match at Worthington Tuesday, before MCC and T-M-B battled tooth-and-nail over five sets. The sixth-seeded Rebels, who were coming on strong as tournament time approached, had defeated third-seeded Red Rock Central in five sets on Lamberton’s court the previous Friday (October 25).
MCC came so close to upsetting the second-seeding Panthers after winning both the second (25-22) and fourth (25-20) sets. T-M-B prevailed in a hard-fought, decisive fifth set (15-11) to end the Rebels season with an overall record of 9-16.
Prior to the close loss to the Panthers, MCC had won three matches in a row (defeating Mountain Lake Area / Comfrey and Luverne before RRC) and had claimed victory in four of its last five (also getting a win over Renville County West.
MCC’s only loss during that five-match stretch was a 3-0 sweep by the Adrian Dragons, who have won 19 of 20 conference matches over the past two seasons.
The Adrian vs. T-M-B match on Halloween Night (October 31) at SMSU in Marshall was extraordinary to say the least, a “Spine-Tingler” according to the Worthington Globe (remember when Daily used to be a part of that title?).
The Panthers won a close first set and then dominated the second, winning by a score of 25-7 as the Dragons simply did not look like themselves. Down 2-0 to a formidable opponent, AHS could have folded tent. But the Dragons rallied to win Game 3, got off to an impressive start in Game 4 and held off a furious T-M-B rally to knot the match at two sets apiece. Down 14-12 in Game 5, Adrian scored four unanswered points to repeat as sub-section champions.
Unfortunately, the Dragons faced North Sub-Section champion Minneota, the defending Class A state champions, in the section finals and were swept by the Vikings, finishing another excellent season — with a remarkable match record of 28-3 in 2019.
Seven seniors — Kendra Frodermann, Kasie Tweet, Jennifer Pruess, Morgan Neuenburg, Bailey Lonneman, Julie Serrao and Maritza Beltran — concluded fine careers and will be missed by AHS volleyball in 2020. But, I anticipate, enthusiastic head coach Brittany Jackson to continue building what’s becoming sustained success for the Dragons in the fall’s indoor sport when next year’s team begins practicing in mid-August.
Morgan Gehl ran a super race at St. Olaf in Northfield last Saturday (November 2) winning what may be the first of several state championships for her. She was challenged for about half the race by Natasha Sortland, a freshman who runs for the paired program of Zumbrota-Mazeppa and Kenyon-Wanamingo. Prior to the meet, Sortland was Class A’s top-ranked runner, while Gehl was second and Luverne sophomore Tenley Nelson was ranked third.
As the race progressed, Gehl built a six-second lead on Sortland by the two-mile mark and then pulled away from the entire field for a 27-second victory, winning the 5,000-meter race in a time of 17:53.5, which was only bettered by two Class AA runners, one by just seven-tenths of a second (17:52.8), while the AA champion was timed at 17:46.1.
Nelson finished third (18:27.1) behind Jade Rypkema of Nevis (18:20.2), while Sortland, who “ran herself out” while striving to keep pace with Gehl, faded to 78th (20:29.6) being passed by 77 runners during the final 1,200 meters.
Nelson led Luverne to a second-place team performance (138 points), while Murray County Central / Fulda, paced by Gehl, finished fourth among the 16 competing teams with 165 points. Perham repeated as team champions with 103 points. The Yellowjackets made it a clean sweep by also winning the boys’ team title with a score of 75.
Remember when Adrian won four straight girls’ team titles from 2005-2008 and then earned a fifth in 2010? Those Dragon teams were remarkable, notching winning scores of 63, 60, 97 and 98 during their four-year run. After placing fourth in 2009 with 154 points, the Dragons won again in 2010 with a score of 89.
Adrian’s biggest margin of victory during those five state championships was its 45-point victory in 2007 (97-142). The closest triumph was that first one in 2005, 63-71 over Staples-Motley.
Sometime in the future, we’ll look back and remember some of those names who made AHS girls’ cross country so exceptional during those years.
The Vikings four-game winning streak was snapped Sunday in Kansas City as the Chiefs rallied with a pair of late field goals to tie and win. The final score was 26-23. Minnesota play at Dallas this week.
The upcoming game between Penn State and the Minnesota Gophers, both undefeated with 8-0 records, is a big-time test for the Maroon and Gold. It may well be worth watching.
