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The Minnewaska volleyball team went on the road in the Section 3AA North tournament opener and pulled off the upset over third-seeded Eden Valley-Watkins (16-11) on Friday.
The sixth-seeded Lakers (12-14) won in four sets, splitting the first two and then winning 25-18 in both the third and fourth sets to secure the win. The Lakers did a good job spreading the ball around, getting double-digit kills from Dreya Barsness (16), Dacia Fleury (14) and Avery Fier (11).
Minnewaska will play at second-seeded New London-Spicer (16-11) on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. New London-Spicer beat Morris Area in four sets on Friday.
MINNEWASKA 3, EDEN VALLEY-WATKINS 1
(25-20, 18-25, 25-18, 25-18)
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MINNEWASKA - Avery Fier - 11 kills, 1 assist, 12 digs, 3 blocks; Brooklyn Meyer - 5 digs, 1 block; Dacia Fleury - 14 kills, 1 assist, 1 ace, 8 digs, 1 block; Dreya Barsness - 16 kills, 1 assist, 1 ace, 7 digs, 2 blocks; Emma Poegal - 2 aces; Haillie Schultz - 2 aces, 6 digs; Haley Shea - 3 kills, 46 assists, 4 aces, 8 digs; Miaya Guggisberg - 6 kills, 4 digs, 2 blocks
Knights wrap up 18-win season
West Central Area was seeded fifth in the 3AA North tournament and went on the road to fourth-seeded Litchfield (16-12) where the Dragons defended their home court in a 3-1 win.
The Knights won set three, 25-23, but fell in two-point sets in the first and fourth around a 25-20 Litchfield win in the second.
“We knew we’d have to play scrappy defense,” WCA head coach Melissa Foslien said. “We had the lead in the first set, 19-13, but let the Dragons back in with some tough rounds of serve receive. We know that we cannot let teams get big runs on us. The momentum can shift so quickly. You have to keep serving.
“A slow start in the fourth kept us playing catch up. A service run by Izzy Puchalski with the score 19-24 gave us hope. She served four straight to make the score 23-24, but we ran out of room for errors and this time around we came up short.”
Foslien said Macy Grosz, Madelyn Westrom and Sophie Sanstead had great nights defensively. Mya Foslien led the way at the net with 19 kills.
“Izzy Puchalski played impressively out of the middle,” coach Foslien said. “She is really going to be an asset to our program in the future. That’s the thing with this team, we are still very young. We graduate Lexi Hunter in the spring, but we will have the majority of our team back for a few years.”
WCA finished the season with an 18-10 record overall.
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LITCHFIELD 3, WEST CENTRAL AREA 1
(26-24, 25-20, 23-25, 25-23)
WCA - Mya Foslien - 13-14 serving, 1 ace, 10 digs, 19 kills, 1 block; Macy Grosz - 10-10 serving, 34 assists, 24 digs, 1 kill, 1 block; Whitney Westrom - 9-10 serving, 15 digs, 5 kills, 3 blocks; Madelyn Westrom - 12-15 serving, 1 ace, 18 digs; Izzy Puchalski - 16-16 serving, 6 digs, 8 kills, 1 block; Lexi Hunter - 22-24, 1 ace; Sophia Sanstead - 21 digs; Alaina Sykora - 1 dig; Wylie McNally - 6 digs; Madison Fagre - 2 digs, 1 kill; Addison Staples - 7 kills
