HJ Sports Blog

By Aaron Schultz
Sports Editor
The Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted Lakers’ volleyball team split a pair of matches last week against two strong opponents.
HLWW topped Buffalo Lake-Hector in four games Tuesday, but then fell in straight games to Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa Thursday in their Central Minnesota Conference opener. Both games were at home.
The Lakers were also in action Saturday as they hosted their own annual tournament. Look for full results of the tournament in next week’s Herald Journal.
This week, HLWW will host Annandale tonight (Monday), and will also be home Thursday, Sept. 11 when they battle Holdingford. The week will then wrap up for the Lakers Saturday, Sept. 13 at the Delano Invite.
On the season, HLWW is 2-1 overall, and is 0-1 in the CMC.
BBE 3, HLWW 0
Hosting the state’s third ranked team in Class 2A, the Lakers fell to Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa (BBE) in straight games, 25-11, 25-14, 25-10.
“Not so good tonight . . . girls didn’t really show up,” head coach Christin LaMott said. “They looked good for being ranked third in state.”
Serve receive was a struggle for the Lakers in this match as they only successfully received 66 percent of BBE’s serves.
Digging was also tough for the Lakers as they performed that at just a 68 percent clip.
The one Laker that did dig well was Christine Bobrowske, who had a perfect night in that area.
“Our attacking was OK, but we couldn’t find a way to get the ball down or past BBE’s big block,” LaMott said.
One stat that tells the story of this match is the fact that Katie Pettit had 53 sets, but only six assists.
Match stats vs. BBE (9/4)
• Maggie Horstmann: 12-for-14 serving, 8-for-14 serve receive, 14-for-18 digging.
• Katie Pettit: 8-for-8 serving, 3 aces, 6 assists.
• Alix Greenhagen: 12-for-12 serving, 11-for-13 serve receive, 12-for-16 digging.
• Sharayah Clos: 3-for-3 serving, 3 blocks, 7-for-10 attacking, 2 kills.
• Rachel Briant: 12-for-13 serving.
• Taylor Williams: 4-for-5 serving.
HLWW 3, BL-H 1
In their first home match of the season Tuesday, HLWW topped Buffalo Lake-Hector in four games, 25-22, 25-16, 22-25, 25-23.
“The girls played an excellent match against a very good Buffalo Lake-Hector (BLH) team,” LaMott said. “First volleyball game in the new HLWW gym and it was fun to see and hear all the fans.”
A number of girls had big nights in the win, lead by Pettit, who had seven aces, 35 assists, and 12 kills. “Awesome night,” LaMott said about Pettit.
LaMott also had nothing but good things to say about the match Kaylee Erickson and Mia Kohn had.
“Kaylee came in to play backrow and did an amazing job,” LaMott said. “(Mia Kohn) again stepped in big for us.”
Also having good nights for the Lakers in the win were Sharayah Clos with seven blocks and Rachel Briant with seven kills.
“The girls played really well, and it was fun to see all the excitement,” LaMott said.
Match stats vs. BLH (9/2)
• Maggie Horstmann: 17-for-18 serving, 10-for-11 serve receive, 6-for-7 attacking.
• Katie Pettit: 19-for-20 serving, 7 aces, 35 assists, 23-for-26 attacking, 12 kills.
• Kaylee Erickson: 6-for-8 serving.
• Alix Greenhagen: 5-for-7 serving, 11-for-11 serve receive.
• Clare Chalupsky: 3-for-3 serve receive, 2 blocks.
• Sharayah Clos: 7 blocks, 3-for-4 serving, 10-for-10 digging, 4-for-6 attacking.
• Rachel Briant: 16-for-16 serving, 5 aces, 9-for-12 serve receive, 22-for-24 attacking, 7 kills.
• Taylor Williams: 12-for-14 serving, 21 assists, 5-for-6 digging.
• Mia Kohn: 5-for-5 serving, 2-for-2 serve receive, 3-for-4 digging.