Kenyon-Wanamingo Volleyball Serves a Treat on Halloween

The Kenyon-Wanamingo Knights cruised by the Tri-City United Titans 3-0 with incredible efficiency Tuesday night.

Scores were 25-15, 25-5, 25-7 in the match that took about 45 minutes to complete.

The Knights were spooky good on Halloween night and Tri-City United had trouble finding any offense as evidenced by the scores.

My scoresheet had the Titans with just two kills in each of the last two sets.

Kenyon-Wanamingo Head Coach Jen Nerison said she was concerned about how the long layoff her team had would effect them.

I've broadcast a lot of their matches this season and I felt it was the best performance I've seen this year.

The top seed Knights had a 14 day layoff between matches but ran their winning streak to 9 matches heading into Thursday's Subsection Championship.

My unofficial Baker and Axelson of Wanamingo statistics showed awesome balance with five girls collecting 5 or more kills on the night.

Kenyon-Wanamingo also served strong with 11 aces and 4 errors.  Sophomore Ally Peterson had 7 aces and no errors.  Corynne Dahl tallied 3 aces and Maddie McCauley added another.

Tri-City United simply could not get a block up against the Knights and a free reign at the net is typically trouble for the team that doesn't block.

Meanwhile Kenyon-Wanamingo was able get some blocking action from Julianna Boyum, Corynne Dahl and Ally Peterson.

I had Ally Peterson with 9 kills, Corynne Dahl with 8 kills, Julianna Boyum with 6 kills and Megan Matson and Chelsea Gilster with 5 kills each.

That kind of balance is very hard to defend and if Kenyon-Wanamingo can continue that variety of attack then look out.

The other thing that really impressed me Tuesday night was the ferocity of the Knights attack.

Virtually all those kills by Kenyon-Wanamingo came on full swings.

The Knights are 20-7 and will defend their Section 2 Class 2A Subsection title Thursday.

The Titans ended their season with a 8-19 mark and it was the final match for six seniors.

Gabby Robinson, Cami Vargo, Cassidy Gilbertson, Emma Chimal, Lauren Gaudreau and Mattie Hellerud.

The other South Subsection Class 2A semi-final didn't take very long either.

The St. Peter Saints rolled by the Blue Earth Area Bucs 3-0 with scores of 25-11, 25-21, 25-20.

It didn't appear Blue Earth Area was playing their best match but the Saints definitely had a lot to do with that.

The Saints were led by 6'2 junior Claire Nuessmeier in their victory over the Bucs.

Nuessmeier crushes the ball and I can tell you a Milo Peterson Ford key Thursday for Kenyon-Wanamingo will be to get a block on her.

I counted 17 kills for Nuessmeier in the three sets for St. Peter and just four hitting errors.

The Saints were also very aggressive on their serves collecting 11 aces on the night.

5'6 sophomore Carlie Chabot had 4 aces, 5'8 senior Nicole Ebeling also had 4 setting up the showdown Thursday in New Prague.

First serve is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. so our coverage will begin 5:45 on POWER 96 Radio, 95.9 FM and worldwide on www.power96radio.com.  People can also download the FREE Radio Pup app and listen on their favorite mobile device.

It was great to see the Kenyon-Wanamingo band there for the first match.

Director Claire Larson said there were about 20 members able to attend with the National Honor Society hosting a Halloween event and many of the band members on the volleyball team.

You can see below they reserved a spot at the end of the bleachers for them.