Faribault Volleyball Loses Marathon in Opener

The Faribault Falcons boys soccer team won their season opener 3-2 over the Byron Bears Thursday.

The Faribault Falcons volleyball team gave preseason Minnesota Volleyball Coaches Association  #4 Class 3A Byron all they could handle.

The Falcons had Nomeland Gym rocking while taking a 2 sets to none lead after 25-22 and 25-23 victories.

Give the Bears credit, They won the next three sets by scores of 25-21, 25-19 and 15-12.

Co-Head Coaches Eryn Harman and Tara Melchert were impressed with their team's efficiency the first couple of sets in particular.

Byron struggled serving in the first couple of sets in with 6 errors in the first, 4 service errors in the second set.  They finished the night with 18 service errors and still won.

I have always believed  the most aggressive team wins and it appeared to me the Bears were the aggressors the last couple of sets which had a few more errors committed by Faribault because of that aggressiveness.

In the first set solo blocks by Falcons Halle Rice, Jocelyn Herda and Addison Dietsch seemed to pump up their team.

Byron did them a favor also with 13 total errors, 6 service errors in that set.

Faribault won the opening set while connecting for 8 total kills.  Byron had 12. The Falcons had no service errors and 7 total errors in the set.

More of the same in set two with Faribault having 1 service error, 7 total miscues.

I had the Falcons with 9 kills that set.  Byron had 11 kills in the second set but 4 more missed serves and 10 total errors.  Senior Emily Soukup led the Faribault offense with 7 kills in the first two sets.

Set 3 the Falcons experienced more errors in part in my opinion because Byron was more aggressive offensively.  My statistics had Faribault with 12 errors in that pivotal set while the Bears had 9 total.

Set 4 Byron jumped out to a 7-3 lead only to see Faribault come back to tie at 13.  I had the Bears with 4 service errors, 9 total mistakes and the Falcons with 9 total errors.

Set #5 was tied at 5.  I had 5 kills for each team in the deciding set but Faribault had 6 errors and Byron 3.

Faribault team statistics had Soukup lead the way with 10 kills on a .233 hitting percentage.  The team finished with 38 kills while hitting .143.

Senior Isabella Herda collected 16 assists, 8 kills while hitting .172.  She also had 12 digs.  Sophmore sister Jocelyn Herda also had 8 kills while hitting .067.  She led the defense with 19 digs.

Senior Isabella Bokman had 14 assists, 9 digs.  Senior Darla Glende collected 11 digs.  Senior libero Clara Malecha 16 digs.

The Falcons totals were 79 digs, 12 reception errors, 6 solo blocks, 16 blocking errors.  35 total errors.

According to my statistics Byron had 50 total kills.  They were led by junior Alexis Nelson with 15 kills, junior Sophia Gartner 11 kills, junior Gabrielle Gartner 10 kills.

Here are some other area volleyball scores from Thursday in the Faribault area.

• #2 Class 3A rated Stewartville 4   #3 Class 1A Bethlehem Academy 1
• Burnsville 3  Minneapolis South 0
• #1 Class 1A Mayer Lutheran 3  Big Lake  1
• #3 Class 4A Champlin Park  3  #5 4A Lakeville North  2
• #6 Class 4A  Chaska 3  #5 Class 2A Southwest Christian 1
• Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton 3  Mankato Loyola 1
• #9 Class 4A Northfield 3  Farmington  0
• Chatfield 3  Rochester Lourdes 0
• Tri-City United  3  Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 0
• #10 Class 2A Caledonia  3  Winona 0
• Fillmore Central  3   Hayfield 0
• Rochester Century 3  #6 Class 2A Cannon Falls 0
• #7 Class 1A Spring Grove 3  Southland  0
• St. Peter 3  LeSueur-Henderson 0
• Rochester John Marshall  3  Wabasha-Kellogg 1

The Falcons girls soccer team traveled to Byron and lost 6-1.

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