By John RittenhouseLuverne’s 2005 volleyball season came to an end during the quarterfinal round of the South Section 3AA Tournament Friday in Windom.Taking on No. 1-seeded Jackson County Central, No. 7 LHS needed to pull off an upset to advance to the semifinals.An upset didn’t develop as the Huskies outscored the Cards 75-46 on the way to a 3-0 victory.Luverne played well enough to challenge JCC in all three games. The Cards, however, couldn’t win a game against the state-ranked Huskies."They hit the ball hard and we couldn’t cover them," said Cardinal coach Lori Oechsle."We tried to make some adjustments, but we couldn’t come up with anything."Luverne ends the year with a 7-19-2 record.The Cards rallied from a 7-2 deficit in the first game to trail by one point (11-10) when Brittany Vogt delivered a service point.JCC countered with an 8-4 surge to open a 19-14 lead as the game progressed, but Luverne whittled the difference to two points (20-18) when Maggie Kuhlman served a point to cap a 4-1 spurt.The Huskies recovered to score the final five points of a 25-18 victory.Luverne sported three one-point leads in the early stages of Game 2. The score was knotted at nine when JCC mounted a 16-6 run to secure a 25-15 win.A kill from Vogt gave the Cards a 4-3 edge in the third game before JCC put together an 11-2 run to gain a 14-6 advantage.Luverne trimmed the difference to five points twice as the game progressed, but a late 10-3 surge by the Huskies clinched a 25-13 win, sending JCC to the semifinals.Meghan Cronberg led the Cards with seven kills and four blocks during the match. Kuhlman charted six kills and five digs, while Jessa Dahl and Erin Hoiland chipped in two blocks each.Chelsea Park paced LHS with 22 set assists. Park completed eight of 10 serves with four points and two aces. Dinah Xaphakdy, who added six kills to the cause, went 10 of 10 serving with four points. Vogt was seven of seven with four points, and Kuhlman was nine of nine with four points.
