In the first set, the Knights were back and forth until hitting and blocking errors pulled them further away from Melrose.  Towards the end of the set, sophomore outside hitter Madi Fagre came alive with some nice kills and Mya Foslien packed a punch or two with some backrow attacks. “The Dutchmen pulled away with errors we created ourselves,” noted Foslien. “Even though we lost that first set the Knights decided that we had gained some momentum, and going into the second set they took over!”

In the second set, with the score 3-3, Mya Foslien came to the service line and served six in a row. Madi Fagre took advantage of a couple of overpasses which can really deplete confidence in a team.  The Knights never looked back, and sailed to a 25-8 victory in the second set.

Melrose came back in the third and kept it close.  “We missed five serves in this set,” reported Coach Foslien. “We worked our way to 20-20 and Madi Fagre came through with three kills at the end of the set and Izzy Puchalski had an ace block to end the set 25-23.”

Set four saw the lady Knights jump out to a 4-1 lead and they held Melrose at bay the entire set, keeping them to just 15 points.  “Mya Foslien, Madelyn Westrom and Whitney Westrom had excellent serve reception tonight, they were just in the zone,” commented Coach Foslien. “When we pass well it is so much fun because we see the full potential of our offense.  Even our defense was reading the plays well. Yes, we still had errors, but we kept Melrose out of system with strategic and hard serving. They had an off night and we played incredibly well.  This is also a big win for us.  We started the season facing Melrose in the Howard Lake/Waverly tournament and lost 0-2.  Our team looked completely different tonight from that early season start.  This is where we want to see growth in our players and team chemistry reaching its max.   If we can continue to play with this kind of spark we hope to make this season into our longest one yet!”

Statistical leaders for West Central Area included Macy Grosz (16/17 serving, 45 set assists, 2 kills, 17 digs), Mya Foslien (22/24 serving, 2 aces, 22 kills, 22 digs, 2 blocks), Madi Fagre (14 kills, 3 blocks), Madelyn Westrom (11/11 serving, 32 digs), Izzy Puchalski (10 kills, 9 digs, 12/13 serving, 1 ace), Whitney Westrom (10/10 serving, 3 kills, 3 blocks, 25 digs), Jaclynn Nelson (5 kills, 1 block) and Sophie Sanstead (5/5 serving, 3 digs).

The Knights will face the Morris Tigers on Thursday in Morris.