Luverne sophomore Cassie Pap fields a spike during Monday’s South Section 3AA Volleyball Tournament game against Sleepy Eye in Windom. The Cardinals swept a three-game match from the Indians to record their first post-season victory since 1998. Also pictured for LHS are Tera Boomgaarden (1) and Emily Oksness (2).
By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne volleyball team advanced to the quarterfinal round of the South Section 3AA Tournament by sweeping a three-game match from Sleepy Eye during a play-in match in Windom Monday.
Prior to taking on SE, the Cardinals capped an 11-16-1 regular season by dropping a three-game match to Southwest Christian in Edgerton Thursday.
Luverne, 12-16-1 overall, plays No. 2 seed Jackson County Central in sectional play Friday in Windom. The match starts approximately at 7:30 p.m.
Luverne 3,
Sleepy Eye 0
The Cardinals recorded their first post-season victory in four seasons when they swept the Indians in a three-game match played in Windom Monday.
No. 7-seeded Luverne, which had not won a tournament game since 1998, controlled play while outscoring No. 10 SE 45-25 in a play-in contest.
"This is our first playoff win in quite a while," said Cardinal coach Mary Jo Graphenteen. "We’ve never played in the preliminary rounds before, but we needed to win a match like this."
Luverne got off to a good start as Stephanie Morgan recorded a kill and a service point, and Emily Oksness served an ace to give the Cards a 3-0 lead.
The Cards still led by three points (7-4) when they gained some separation with 6-1 surge that made it a 13-5 difference. Brittany Williams served a pair of aces, Morgan had an ace block and a kill and Tera Boomgaarden contributed a kill and an ace tip to the run.
SE closed the margin to six points at 13-7 before Taylor Nelson served a pair of aces to ice a 15-7 win for LHS.
Game 2 was tight early on as Luverne sported a 7-6 edge at one point.
Williams served five consecutive points, including two aces to give the Cards a 12-5 cushion, and Morgan and Nelson capped a 15-8 win by serving two and one points respectively.
An 8-3 run by SE gave the Indians a 10-7 lead in Game 3 before Luverne ended the match by scoring the next eight points.
A pair of service points by Morgan, three kills by Rashel Boeve, a kill and a block by Boomgaarden and another point by Williams made up the rally that clinched a 15-10 win for LHS.
"We picked a good time to have one of our best serving nights of the year," Graphenteen said.
"We served over 90 percent, and it was a good thing, because our receiving and free-ball passing wasn’t very sharp. Against an unpredictable team like SE, which is the hardest type of team to play, its tough to get anything going. We did what we needed to do to get a win, and that’s the only thing that counts in the playoffs."
Morgan was 18 of 18 serving with 12 points, Oksness 16 of 16 with 10 points and four aces, Nelson six of six with four points and two aces and Williams 13 of 16 with three aces and 10 points.
Morgan, Boeve and Boomgaarden led the way at the net with 13, seven and five kills respectively. Williams charted 26 set assists.
SWC 3, Luverne 1
The Cardinals ended the regular season by dropping a three-game match to the E-Gals in Edgerton Thursday.
The two teams previously played meaningful matches at this time of year when they both were members of the same sub-section prior to 1999, but that changed under the state’s new three-class format as both teams compete in separate classes.
Though the importance of the matches the teams play these days has dwindled, fans that attended Thursday’s clash wouldn’t have known it.
"It was a great match," Graphenteen said. "We always bring out the best in SWC, and their coach said they played one of their best matches of the year against us. We didn’t play a great match, but we did play very hard."
SWC controlled Game 1 while coasting to a 15-7 win, and the E-Gals led 10-3 in the second game before Luverne came storming back to gain a 16-15 edge. SWC, however, scored the next two points to clinch an 18-16 win and take a 2-0 lead.
Luverne pulled out a 16-14 win in Game 3 to force a fourth game, but the Cards ran out of gas at that point and dropped a 15-8 decision in the finale.
Morgan, Oksness and Cassie Pap registered 20, 10 and six kills in the match. Nelson served 12 points and three aces, while Oksness was 19 of 21 with 10 points serving.