By John RittenhouseThe Hills-Beaver Creek volleyball team fell a couple of points short in its attempt to qualify for state competition for the first time in school history Saturday in Marshall.Taking on two-time defending champion Minneota in a Section 3A championship match at Southwest State University, the Patriots appeared on the verge of posting an upset when they took a 2-1 lead after three games.Minneota, however, spoiled H-BC’s possible party.The state’s fifth-ranked Class 1A team rallied from an early deficit to win the fourth game by four points before snapping a tie at nine in the fifth game with a 6-1 surge that clinched the Vikings’ third consecutive section championship.Minneota, 29-2-1, will take on Bethlehem Academy in the quarterfinal round of the Minnesota State High School Class A Volleyball Tournament at 1 p.m. today in the River Centere in St. Paul.H-BC, which won its first sub-section title in school history two days prior to challenging the Vikings, ends the campaign with a 20-6 record.The Patriots played well enough to take the Vikings to five games, but it was Minneota’s experience that won out in the end."I would say their experience was the difference," said H-BC second-year coach Curt Doorneweerd. "They have played in a lot of big matches the last four or five years, so they were used to playing in pressure-packed environments. The only big match we played in before this was against Fulda Thursday."A lack of big-match experience didn’t seem to hamper the Patriots early in Saturday’s championship match. They were positioned to sweep the Vikings, but settled for winning two of the first three games.Minneota scored the first two points of Game 1 before the Patriots rallied to tie the score at five and seven with a kill and a service point from Amanda Olson.The score was tied at 11 when Brittney Rozeboom gave the Patriots their first lead (13-11) with a pair of service points, and Olson extended the lead to five points (21-16) with a service point as the game progressed.The Vikings pulled within two points (21-19) by recording three consecutive counters, but the Patriots answered the challenge with a 4-2 surge capped by an ace tip from Erin Boeve to secure a 25-21 victory.Both teams sported leads early in Game 2 before H-BC turned a 7-6 deficit into an 11-7 lead with a five-point run capped by a kill from Melinda Feucht.The Vikings battled back to move in front 13-12 with a 6-1 run, but H-BC countered with a 4-2 surge that ended with a service point by Melinda Sandstede to regain the lead at 16-15.Minneota countered with a 7-2 run after Standstede’s point to take a 22-17 lead it would never relinquish. The Patriots trimmed the difference to three points twice (22-19 and 23-20) as the game progressed before the Vikings knotted the match at one game each with a 25-20 victory.The Vikings led 3-1 early in the third game before Boeve recorded three blocks and a kill during a 5-0 run that gave the Patriots a 6-3 advantage.H-BC still led by three (8-5) when Minneota mounted a 6-1 run to take an 11-9 edge, but a block by H-BC’s Kelly Mulder tied the score at 11.The score was knotted at 13 when Boeve recorded one block and one kill and Cassi Tilstra served a pair of points to give H-BC a 17-13 advantage.H-BC extended its lead to five points (23-18) when Olson delivered an ace serve before Tilstra iced a 25-22 victory with a kill.Considering this was H-BC’s first appearance in a section championship match, Doorneweerd was happy with his team’s performance through three games."I really didn’t know what to expect from the girls going into the match, then they came right out and played really well. These girls surprise me all the time," he said.H-BC, which scored the first two points of the fourth game, fell behind by two points before knotting the score at seven with a service point by Olson.Minneota went on a 10-3 run to break the tie and take a 17-10 lead. The Vikings still led by seven points (19-12) before H-BC trimmed the difference to three points (19-16) with an ace tip by Sandstede.The Vikings sported a 22-19 advantage when they scored three consecutive points to tie the match at two games each with a 25-19 victory.The Patriots scored the first two points of the fifth game before falling behind 5-3.A point served by Sandstede tied the game at five, and the Patriots battled back from a three-point deficit (9-6) to knot the score at nine after Tilstra delivered a kill.Minneota, however, recorded the next four points and scored six of the last seven points to post a 15-10 win and capture the section championship."I thought we had them where we wanted them when the score was tied at nine in the fifth game," Doorneweerd said. "We just chose a bad time to make a few bad passes. We shanked a few. It happens. Unfortunately, we picked a bad time. When the score is 9-9, and you’re playing to 15, you can’t afford to make any mistakes."Boeve, one of four senior members of the H-BC team along with Olson, Sandstede and Alissa Hoyme, turned in a 22-kill, 13-block performance for the Patriots.Olson, who added six kills to the cause, was 18 of 18 serving with three aces. Rozeboom completed all 17 of her serves, and Feucht was 12 of 13 serving.Mulder recorded 11 kills and 11 blocks, while Feucht chipped in four kills and two blocks. Tilstra added six kills.
