Lady Knights Claim South Sub-Section 6A Championship with 3-1 Win Over BBE
The West Central Area lady Knights captured the Section 6A South Sub-Section championship with a 3-1 (25-17, 19-25, 25-22, 25-19) victory over Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa on Thursday. The second-seeded Knights trailed top-seeded BBE 22-15 in the pivotal third set when Macy Grosz stepped to the serving line and served 10 consecutive points to lead WCA to a 2-1 lead in the match. The Knights rode that momentum to a win in the fourth set, taking the match and advancing to face Underwood for the Section 6A title at 7:00pm Saturday at the Kennedy Secondary School in Fergus Falls. The sub-section title is the first in school history for the lady Knights.
Mya Foslien (21 kills, 23 digs, 17/18 serves), Izzy Puchalski (11 kills, 9 digs, 20/21 serves, 1 ace), and Madi Fagre (9 kills, 6 digs, 1 solo block), Macy Grosz (42 set assists, 19/20 serves, 17 digs, 1 block), Madelyn Westrom (15/15 serving, 26 digs) and Whitney Westrom (10/10 serves, 28 digs) led the Knights in the match.
Senior Brooklyn Fischer of the Jaguars contributed 18 kills in what turned out to be her final varsity match. Freshman Kasey Fischer added 10 kills.
Here is a set-by-set recap of the match as provided by WCA Head Coach Missy Foslien.
Set 1
BBE missed their opening serve and the Knights never looked back, Izzy Puchalski served 10 straight points, making the first set 10-0 in favor of the Knights. The Jaguars struggled to get things going and the Knights were up 20-7 at one point. The Jaguars gained momentum though and closed the gap by the end of set one 17-25. Mya Foslien had 8 kills in the first set.
Set 2
The next set was a different story for WCA. This often happens to us, we come out fierce and then tank in set two. I wouldn’t say we tanked, but we allowed too big of a deficit. BBE was up 7-15, and then later Macy Grosz came up to serve for the Knights and somewhat closed the gap at 12-15. We had quite a few net calls, and then some hitting errors that really took us out of our groove. Towards the end of set two it was 19-23, and the Jaguars finished with the win 19-25. In set two we hardly connected with the floor for kills, and that’s what got us.
Set 3
Set three found the Knights down for most of the set. Coach Foslien was forced to use both timeouts early, with scores at 5-9 and again 13-18. I had to tell the girls, it is on you now, battle back, we knew this wouldn’t be easy. Do your job well, like we talked about, keep pushing. Then down 15-22, Macy Grosz served out the rest of set three, winning the game 25-22. It was incredible! Mya Foslien had 8 kills, and Izzy Puchalski turned it on big time adding 5 kills and 2 huge blocks in the come from behind win.
Set 4
This set was much more back and forth. I told the girls, this is where we finish. Be the first to five, then ten, then fifteen and so on. If we chunk the game and narrow our focus it seems to work, especially in crunch time. The Knights gained the lead at 10-9 and then were up 15-11, and were the first to twenty. Mya Foslien served up three straight to make it 23-17. BBE had called a timeout, but the Knights weren’t looking back, they rolled on to victory 25-19. Izzy Puchalski continued to show her never give up attitude and led the team in set four with 4 kills. Jaclynn Nelson and Madi Fagre each had some crucial blocks to help keep the momentum.
“Our passing wasn’t stellar tonight, our team averaged a 1.7 in serve receive. Macy had to do a lot of running, and she did amazing with 42 assists. I would have to say defensively, Whitney Westrom had a huge night with 28 digs, Madelyn had 26 and Mya had 23. We need great defense because we are short! Mya also had 21 kills. The girls did what they set out to do, they earned our first banner in the gym for our volleyball program. I am so proud of their commitment to this goal. We turn around tomorrow and have earned two more hours of practice and we are going to soak it all up and be ready for Underwood on Saturday.”
