Bloomington Jefferson Win Class Crossover Match

<p>This season we saw a record number of matches between opponents of different classes.  This week<em> Bloomington Jefferson</em> (AAA) hosted C<em>oncordia Academy</em> (AA.)  </p> <p>  Bloomington Jefferson is in the tough, Metro West - second only to<em> Chaska</em>.  They have defeated Chanhassen, Edina and St Louis Park.  Likewise, Concordia Academy has been ranked #3 in AA.  Prior to the match, they had a record of 8-1 with their only loss to top ranked AA - Stewartville.  </p> <p>  The Beacons jumped out to an early lead in the first set.<strong>  [player_tooltip player_id="10088" first="Kira" last="Fallert"]</strong> pounded it out on the outside early on.  The quick, shoot to the outside left the line open for her to her sharp cross hit and the defense couldn’t react quick enough.  Meanwhile, libero, <strong>Grace Landvik</strong> was able to read the hitters and take nearly every serve from the Jaguars. <strong> [player_tooltip player_id="71950" first="Brooke" last="Weichbrodt"] </strong>went on a serving run growing the lead to 20-12.  The block was too much for Bloomington after a super series by <strong>Kenzie Roettger.  </strong>The first set ended 25-14 with CA looking to have control of the night.  </p> <p>  Heading into the second set, the Cougars knew they needed to pass better in order to get their offense back on track.  The game was close until about 13-9 when the home team took a time out.   The Jags had a few too many unforced errors and their attackers couldn’t find their way past the block.  Meanwhile<em> Fallert</em> was a part of every play with great passing out of the back row on serve receive.  They even started to tried a triple block on her but she seemed to find the holes wrapping things up 25-15.</p> <p>  It was starting to look bad for the Jags, but they came out with a new plan for set three refusing to be swept by the smaller school.  It started with <em>[player_tooltip player_id="72796" first="Cassie" last="Sieling"]’s</em> service run.  They made a few adjustments and were able to get in a defensive rhythm.  This set, the Jag’s middles kept a better eye on<em> Fallert. </em> They jumped out to 9-5 lead thanks to the Sieling sisters, <strong>Cassie</strong> with excellent serve receive and <strong>Ellie</strong> strong swings on the outside that created more free ball opportunities.  Setter, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="71964" first="Kelly" last="McArthur"]</strong> kept the momentum with a few tough serves.  She did a better job of creating opportunities for her hitters and leftie,<strong> [player_tooltip player_id="72796" first="Cassie" last="Sieling"]</strong>.  When Cassie went back to serve Ellie kept pace with a few great hits alternating deep line with short cross.  The race to 20 was on.  A missed serve from the Beacons was all it took and Jefferson was on their way.  Ending the third set with a dump from McArthur and kill from<strong> [player_tooltip player_id="31609" first="Ellie" last="Sieling"]</strong> to the deep middle back.</p> [caption id="attachment_116579" align="alignright" width="238"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-116579" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pd/uploads/2020/11/mcarthur-238x300.jpg" alt="" width="238" height="300" /> <span style="font-size: 8pt;">P</span><span style="font-size: 10.6667px;">hoto: Facebook -signs to Niagara Univ.</span>[/caption] <p>  Now, with the score 2-1 in favor of the Beacons, it was clear they need to slow down Fallert and continue to have good serve reception to come back.    However, the Beacons answered back taking an early lead.  Both teams played hard in the fourth set with long rallies, great hustle, and tough serving.  The Jags were 24-23.  <strong>Shainia Zinter</strong> evened the score with a bullet from the right side, followed by the assist from <em>McArthur</em> to <em>Cassie</em> out of the middle.  With Fallert in the back row, the Jag’s were able to stop the Beacon with their defense and eventual wore them out winning the 4th set 28-26.</p> <p>  During the fifth set, the Jaguars had great success swinging out of the right whether it was Cassie, <strong>Melanie Meyer</strong>, or<strong> Olivia Opstad</strong> they were able to make others field the ball.  Fallert had a last minute run with the score 14-11 she wasn’t ready to be done, but they relied on her a little too much in the end giving the win to the well-balanced Jaguars.</p> <p>Overall, there was strong execution from both teams.  The Beacon’s came out strong in the first two with Fallert and Landvik digging everything; but Bloomington Jefferson forced other besides those two to play <span style="font-size: 1rem;">more balls and it pushed them out of their rhythm.  That, coupled with the strong front row plays by McArthur and her ability to spread the ball evenly while utilizing the right pin.  </span></p> <p>MVP goes to [player_tooltip player_id="72796" first="Cassie" last="Sieling"] for her efforts in the front and back row.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>