Tri-County Area Team claim something from last weekend's E-S Invitational

CENTRAL - All three of the Tri-County Area's Dairyland Conference prep volleyball teams were at the Eleva-Strum Invitational last weekend Saturday, Sept. 21.

All three teams came in looking to latch on to anything positive and got it.

For Osseo-Fairchild it was just getting a win, any win period. It's been a rough-go for an inexperienced Thunder squad to start out the '24 season. Last week they lost DC matches to No. 1 ranked Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran 3-0 in EC on Tuesday, Sept. 17 and 3-1 at Whitehall on Thursday, Sept. 19 where the Norse blistered the Thunder, despite O-F winning a game, with 24 aces. The situation didn't get any better in pool play at the Eleva-Strum Invite where O-F lost 25-9, 25-21 to Whitehall; 25-13, 25-10 to Thorp and 25-14, 25-21 tp Necedah. But the Thunder finally got its first win in the seventh place match over Lake Holcombe 25-14 and 25-21.

While the Thunder, 1-14 overall dropped a 3-0 match at home to Cochrane-Fountain City on Tuesday, Sept. 24 by scored of 25-11, 25-12 and 25-20, they'll have a chance to earn their first Dairyland Conference win since rejoining the league this school year tonight at Augusta. The Beavers, 3-10 overall, picked up their first league win this season last week Thursday by a 3-0 score at Lincoln. That was sandwiched between a pair of 3-0 conference losses at. Melrose-Mindoro last week Tuesday and at Blair-Taylor on Tuesday, Sept. 24. Against Mel-Min the Beavers lost 25-8, 25-17, 25-19. The Mustangs' Anna Radcliff was the offensive standout of the contest as she had eight aces to give her a new career-high in aces. She had eight of their 18 aces. Augusta gave up another bunch of aces to Blair-Taylor along with 23 kills as the Wildcats' Chloe Mendenbilk had a team-best 10. AHS did pick up a win at the E-S Invite in straight sets over Lake Holcombe 25-17, 25-14 although they finished sixth with losses to Eleva-Strum 25-15, 25-18, eventual champion Elmwood/Plum City 25-10, 25-20 and to Thorp in the fifth place match 25-13, 25-17.

The Beavers will be back at home for the first time since an Aug. 29 match vs. Durand-Arkansaw. The match begins at 7 p.m.

"We're making progress with our new offense," Augusta head coach Alicia Bethke said. "The girls are more aggressive in their hits and they're communicating much better than at the beginning of the season.. If we can just find successes wherever we can they're confidence will go and their play will continue to improve."

Up and down doesn't even begin to describe Eleva-Strum week since last Tuesday, Sept. 17. The Cardinals were at home all last week. But they first lost to Independence/Gilmanton 3-1 by game scores of 25-17, 21-25, 25-18, 26-24 as they were unable to control the Indees' middle blocker Mikyah Scow as she recorded 10 kills and four blocks to be named WHTL 102.3 Player of the Match. Gabrielle Franck led the Cards with 15 kills with teammate Neeley Lasher getting several kills as well Terris Quick leading the team in digs. Forty-Eight hours later, E-S lost again, this time in brutal fashion on Parent's Night to Alma/Pepin by a 3-2 score. Eleva-Strum actually scored more points across those five sets (106-102), but sadly they still had to settle for a loss 27-25, 19-25, 16-25, 25-20, 15-11. E-S lost despite Redbird libero senior Ella McConell leading the team in digs with 27 and junior middle blocker Aliza Kulig scoring a season-best 25 kills.

Part of Central's problem last was serve-receive and head coach Katie Skoug think the team went some ways to address this at E=S Invitational. After losing another close match, this time to Elmwood/Plum City , 25-22, 15-12; the Cardinals rallied back to win their next three matches to finish in third place. E-S downed Augusta, swept past Lake Holcombe 25-11, 25-8 and they edged conference rival Whitehall 23-25, 25-21, 15-12. The Cards trailed for all of Game 1 but were able to turn the tables in Game 2, getting a 24-17 lead after a back n' forth affair early on and holding off a Norse rally to win Game 2 and jumping out to a big lead in Game 3 by 8-4 and 10-6 scores and holding on for the win.

"Our serve-receive was much better today," Skoug said. "It's something we've worked on in practice and what I stress to our team members is that what we do in practice is purposeful, not just to have fun but to improve our game to where we can have success."

E-S also made good use of their depth to outlast the Norse not just over the whole day but in Games 2 and 3 as Whitehall had just nine players taking part on the varsity squad compared to Eleva-Strum's 14.

The Cardinal kept the momentum gong in their favor on Tuesday with a Homecoming win over Melrose-Mindoro 3-0. They are at Lincoln tonight. While Skoug understands competing for the DC title will be a long-shot with two losses already, the team hopes to keep their momentum rolling to the playoffs.

"I want us to understand we're building something that's hopefully going to be complete by the time we reach the playoffs in a long season." Skoug said.