By John George
Trailing 2-1 to West Central Area and down 17-11 in game four, the Perham Yellowjacket volleyball team got an ear full from head coach Dan Christenson during a time out.
"I told them 'this is a very important HOL (Heart O' Lakes) game. We really need this game'." Christenson said.
His team responded by rallying for a 28-26 win in game four, then went on to a 15-7 win in game five to complete the comeback and beat the Knights, 3-2 (19-25, 25-10, 21-25, 28-26, 15-7).
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"This team just got a lot tougher in game four and five," Christenson said. "Their backs were against the wall and they responded. A couple of weeks ago we were in this same situation at Lake Park-Audubon and we didn't show the intestinal fortitude to come back. They did here tonight."
WCA took an early lead in game one at Prairie Wind Gymnasium and led most of the way until Kayla Speicher served the the Jackets to a 12-10 lead. But the service game of WCA's Tana Lohse sparked the Knights to a 25-19 win.
Perham started going to outside hitter Tiffany Schoreer in game two and the result was a dominating 25-10 win. With the Jackets leading 14-9, senior Brandi Cresap reeled off nine straight points from the service line, with four points finished by Schroeer, as Perham pulled away.
Game three was a repeat of the first, with WCA gaining an early lead and Perham playing catch-up throughout. An ace by Tara Sailer closed the Knights lead to 23-21, but a pair of aces gave WCA the 25-21 win.
Game four was all WCA until the Jackets came out of their timeout. A kill by Schroeer stopped a WCA rally. Schroeer then went to the service line and her ace closed the lead to 19-18. Two points later, a kill by Speicher gave Perham a 21-20 lead. The two teams traded points until Perham finally pulled ahead to win, 28-26.
"We got some breaks when we needed them," Christenson said. "West Central made some mistakes in game four towards the end that kept us in it."
Cresap took to the service line to start game five and by the time she moved, the Jackets were up 6-1 and on their way to a big conference win. Schroeer finished with 14 kills and nine blocks. Speicher had 12 kills, along with four blocks, 13 digs and five aces.
"I thought coming into this that West Central, along with D-G-F and Breckenridge were among the better teams in the conference," Christenson said. "This is a big win to get by them."
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The win becomes magnified when looking ahead on the Jackets' schedule. Perham will now play three straight on the road, starting with a trip to Glyndon tonight (Sept. 28) to face No. 1-AA D-G-F.
"We can't make any mistakes against them," Christenson said of the Rebels. "We need to play our best match of the year to have any hopes of staying in the hunt for the HOL title."
The Rebels (10-1, 4-0 HOL) beat Perham 3-1 (26-24, 25-23, 18-25, 25-16) last year and broke the Jackets string of 18-straight HOL titles.
Perham will play at Frazee on Oct. 3 and at Barnesville on Oct. 5 before returning home for the Perham Invite on Oct. 7.
