Lady Lynx remain unscathed in ESD
By:
Jill Meier, Journal editor
Jill Meier/BV Journal
Kazi Ellingson dumps the ball back over the net during a three-set victory against Pierre last week. On Saturday, BV traveled to Aberdeen Central and came away with a 3-2 victory.
There’s something special brewing in the Lady Lynx volleyball program this season: To date, Brandon Valley is undefeated against their Eastern South Dakota Conference opponents. Last week, the Lynx carved out two ESD victories, the first a dominating 3-0 win over Pierre, and the second, a hard-fought 3-2 road victory against Aberdeen Central.
“Even though we’re winning, we keep talking about how we need to get better,” said Lynx head coach Marette Grage. “We’ve been talking about defensively that we still have to get better and react to the ball and do anything just to get a touch on it to keep it alive so that somebody can better the ball and get it over the net. It’s a process, we’re still working hard and the girls are excited and they’re gelling a team.”
BV 3, Pierre 0
The Gov’s had few answers for BV, who packed up and headed back to the Capitol city as a result of three straight set losses, 25-16, 25-22, 25-14.
“We played well tonight. We did a good job of serve receive and getting the ball to our hitters, running our plays,” Grage said. “We knew they were going to be strong defensively, and they were. They were scrappy so we had to move the ball around and find the open holes.”
And that’s just what the Lynx did. Brooklyn Grage and Kazi Ellingson combined for 22 kills, 14 of which were credited to Grage.
“Kazi had a really good game and Brooklyn had a good game with kills. They were not covering Kazi at all as far as blocking. She was pretty much open the whole night, which was nice, and she placed the ball well,” the coach said.
BV also implemented an aggressive serving game, recording five aces as a team.
“We served very aggressive tonight, which got them out of system, and that was probably the best thing that happened tonight is we got them out of system with our serving. We moved the ball around so they couldn’t set up any plays,” Grabe said.
Setters Jenna Stengel and Liz Kopp were responsible for 16 and 14 assists, respectively. They also put their magic touch on the ball with a series of point-scoring dumps.
Abby Finch and Taylor Stemen both had 18 digs to their credit, while Ellingson had one solo and one assisted block.
For Pierre (3-2), Ayvrie Kaiser had nine kills and five digs. Reese Terwilliger added five kills. Morkeia Mutchelknaus picked up 10 digs and Kenzie Gronlund had three assisted blocks and two ace serves. Miah Kienholz put up 11 set assists.
In other BV action, the JV and freshman A teams both won 2-0, while the Lynx sophomore and freshman B team won 2-1.
BV 3, AC 2
The Lynx kept their ESD record in check Saturday, coming away from Aberdeen Central with a 3-2 victory. After losing the first two sets, 24-26 and 20-25, BV reeled off the next three, 25-19, 25-17 and 15-13, which improves their record to 8-3.
In the road match, Ellingson and Brooklyn Grage produced 21 and 20 kills, respectively. Grage was also a factor in BV’s back row, picking up 25 digs. Finch and Stemen accounted for 26 and 21, respectively.
At the net, Ellingson got a hand on two blocks and Kopp put up a whopping 56 set assists.
BV’s serving game was led by Stemen, Finch and Kopp. All three had two ace serves.
AC’s Brooklyn Kusler charted 18 kills and 16 digs. Hannah Kiel was credited with 16 kills and Kailegh Fauth had 26 digs. Grace Kuch had two blocks, while Grace Myhre had 42 set assists and a pair of ace serves.
The Lynx JV and both freshmen teams squeaked out 2-1 victories, while the sophomore team lost 2-0.
