There is no love lost between #6-seeded Pelican Rapids and #3-seeded Perham Yellowjackets and this season in volleyball, the joy of defeating a big rival goes the Perham after a 3-1 controlled performance in the opening round of 8AA South-Sub-section playoffs.
Sets two and three were both close games with game two going to Pelican Rapids 25-23. The victory would be the only win of the night for the Vikings as Perham won a close third set 25-22, while bookending the middle sets with easy cruises of 25-13 in set one and 25-16 to seal the match in the fourth.
Head Coach Dan Christenson has stressed the need for serving efficiency over the course of the season and that showed with Perham garnering over half a set of free points in the match with four players combining for 14 aces.
Tina Scheidecker led the Yellowjackets with four; Becky Stoll, Rayna Jacobson and Katrina Moenkedick each had three. Tina Schmitz added one.
The pivotal game two was tied at a dozen when a Scheidecker ace following a Moenkedick kill put Perham up 14-12. Perham saw leads of 16-13, 18-15 and 19-18, before the Vikings rallied late to move to set point up 24-23.
ADVERTISEMENT
Stoll was set up on the left side for a kill and blistered the ball to the back row where Vikings' Defensive Specialist Lizzie Pfeifle made an instinctive dig. She barely had time to get away from Stoll's blast and her dig fell helplessly in the back right row of the Perham defense for the 25-23 set two win.
Stoll showed an expression of resignation with a shrug of the shoulders. What should have been a set-tying kill was somehow returned.
The Vikings surged to an early lead in set four, but the score flip-flopped to a tie at 22, before the Yellowjackets reeled off the final three points and cruised through the fourth set to advance.
Perham seniors dotted the top of the stat sheet.
Mickelson and Moenkedick led the way in kills with 18 and 16, respectively.
Moenkedick added 18 assists to lead the team.
Becky Stoll had 16 digs, two blocks, five kills and five assists.
The Vikings end their season with a record of 11-13. Perham improves to 13-15 and moves on to face a familiar nemesis in the #2-seeded Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Rebels (19-7).
ADVERTISEMENT
The teams met Sept. 27 in Perham and Oct. 13 at D-G-F with the Rebels coming out on top both times 3-1.
Tonight's game (Friday, Oct. 28) is at D-G-F with a scheduled start time of 7 p.m.
The winner will face the winner of top-seed Wadena-Deer Creek and the four-seed, Hawley Tuesday, Nov. 1.
D-G-F 3, Perham 1.
Despite the valiant efforts of senior Katrina Moenkedick, in her final game as a Yellowjacket, the Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Rebels' Emily Pender and Hannah Young each tallied 11 kills to lead the Rebels (20-7, 6-0 HOL) to a 18-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-13 win against Perham on Friday at the Minnesota Class 1A, Section 8 tournament.
Mandy Mercil recorded three aces and 35 assists for D-G-F. Kyla Otte was the digs leader for the Rebels with 23.
Moenkedick ended her career in style with a game-high 25 kills, 15 digs, 3 blocks and 9 assists.
"Stats as impressive as the player," Christenson said. "She will be sorely missed next fall."
ADVERTISEMENT
The Yellowjackets started out on fire taking the first game handily 25-18. Like a 3-1 defeat to D-G-F, October 13, the Jackets got the first set under their belts only the see the Rebels steal the final three games.
"(We had) great focus and, great energy," said Christenson. "We really had DGF on their heels to start the match."
According to Christenson, the Jackets had one rotation that was not feeling good about the defense they had.
"I hoped we could make it through the night, but D-G-F exploited the weakness and used it to propel through games two, three and four."
The Rebels got back on track and won each of the remaining three sets by bigger margins as the match progressed
"Our kids played well overall. D-G-F just played better. They showed us why the QRF ranks them 11th in the state."
D-G-F moves on to play WDC next Tuesday night in the Prairie Wind Middle School gymnasium, as Perham will host the neutral site subsection championship match.
D-G-F 3, Perham 1.
ADVERTISEMENT
Game stats:
Kills: Moenkedick 25, Mickelson 10, Lockhart 5, Stoll 4, Erickson 4, Herrmann 2.
Digs: Scheidecker 21, Stoll 16, Mickelson 16, Moenkedick 15, Schmitz 13, Christenson 8, Jacobson 2, Herrmann 2, Erickson 2, Lockhart 2.
Blocks: Lockhart 3, Moenkedick 3, Erickson 3, Herrmann 2.
Aces: Christenson 1, Scheidecker 1, Schmitz 1.
Assists: Christenson 12, Moenkedick 9, Jacobson 7, Stoll 1.
D-G-F (kills-blocks-aces): Frink 6-4-0, Tigue 7-2-0, Pender 11-1-0, Milbrandt 0-0-1, Otte 0-0-2 (23 digs), Mercil 1-2-3 (35 assists), Highness 3-1-0, Young 11-2-0.
Game stats:
ADVERTISEMENT
Kills: Mickelson 18, Moenkedick 16, Herrmann 5, Stoll 5, Lockhart 4, Erickson 2, Schmitz 1.
Blocks: Lockhart 3, Stoll 2, Mickelson 1.
Aces: Scheidecker 4, Stoll 3, Jacobson 3, Moenkedick 3, Schmitz 1.
Digs: Stoll 16, Schmitz 12, Scheidecker 11, Mickelson 7, Moenkedick 4, Jacobson 4, Lockhart 3, Herrmann 1, Guck 1.
Assists: Moenkedick 18, Christenson 11, Jacobson 8, Stoll 5, Herrmann 2, Mickelson 2, Scheidecker 1, Erickson 1.
Statistics courtesy of MinnesotaSportsOnline.com.
