Kasson-Mantorville Ends Kenyon-Wanamingo Volleyball Season

The Kenyon-Wanamingo Knights volleyball team ended their season Friday at the State Tournament in St. Paul.

They were defeated by a very familiar opponent in the all Hiawatha Valley League consolation bracket match, the Kasson-Mantorville KoMets.

During the regular season the Knights had an incredible come from behind win in Kasson in a five set thriller and they also defeated the KoMets at last year's state tournament to claim the third place trophy and individual medals.

Kasson-Mantorville played like a team on a mission not to let Kenyon-Wanamingo beat them again.

You never know what kind of a performance you are going to get out of a team in the consolation bracket.

A team obviously has visions of winning it all once they get to the big dance and the disappointment of losing the first match sometimes is too much for a team.

I don't know if that was the case here but I do know the Knights didn't appear to have much energy at least early in the match.

The KoMets were up big in the first set before Kenyon-Wanamingo gained some momentum at the end.  It took 7 set points before Kasson-Mantorville could put away their conference foes 25-18.

The Knights had the lead a couple times in the second set before the KoMets pushed through for a 25-21 win and it looked like Kenyon-Wanamingo was going to win the third set up 22-17 before losing 25-23.

The KoMets were led offensively by their top hitter 6'0 junior Peyton Suess with 17 kills but she also had double digit hitting errors for a .132 hitting percentage.  Sophomore Emilee Terry had a .103 hitting percentage with 9 kills and 6 errors and junior Caroline Braun hit .136 with 7 kills and four errors.

6'0 freshman Mya Seuss stepped up big time for the KoMets with 5 kills and only one error for a through the roof .500 attack percentage.

6'0 junior setter Abby Bigelow had 33 assists and 9 digs as well as a service ace and block assist.

The KoMets tallied 10 blocks and the Knights 7 on the night.

The match started nearly 90 minutes late on court 2 after some marathon matches on that court.

5'4 junior libero Bailey Berge led Kasson-Mantorville with 16 digs and Peyton Suess and Emilee Terry finished with 12 each.

Kenyon-Wanamingo had just one player with double digit digs.  Senior libero Sydney Way led all players with 18 digs.

The KoMets clearly concentrated on getting a block up on the Knights top hitter sophomore Ally Peterson.  She was held to 8 kills in 44 swings.

Kenyon-Wanamingo finished their season 21-9.

Kasson-Mantorville plays for the consolation championship at 11:00 a.m. Saturday.