by Kelsey Buchholz, Assistant Volleyball Coach
The Garretson Blue Dragon volleyball team is under new leadership and seems to be headed in a new direction. After a 5-3 start and second seed, recently beating Baltic last week and Hills-Beaver Creek earlier this week, the Lady Blue Dragons hope to keep the momentum on their side going into Big East Conference play this week.
Garretson opened their season with a 3-1 win over Tri Valley. The Mustangs were responsible for bouncing Blue Dragons from post season play last year. Garretson came out hungry winning the first set, 25-11. But they then dropped the second, 20-25, failing to capitalize on the momentum gained with the convincing first set victory. Garretson recovered and found their groove taking down the Mustangs over the next two sets, 25-23 and 25-20.
Leading the way was Lily Ranschau with six kills. She was supported by Lizzie Olson with five. Lauren Heesch, Kennedy Buckneberg, and Aftyn Heitkamp each had three kills in the effort as well. Defensively Ranschau and Kenzie Northrup popped up 18 and 14 digs, respectively.
After dropping a forgettable three sets to the Watchdogs at Beresford, the Blue Dragons then traveled to Canton for their annual eight team tournament. Garretson opened their day with a two-set loss to eventual tournament champions West Lyon Wildcats. The rut and disappointment followed them to the next team as they dropped two sets to the host team Canton C-Hawks. Garretson recovered by taking down the Lennox Orioles. But it wasn't without drama as it took a 32-30 game to make the decision in the first set. Garretson finished off the win a little more quickly in the second set. Due to tie breakers, Garretson fell to the seventh-place match and was slated to play Dell Rapids. Garretson made it interesting, narrowly dropping the first set but then recovering to take the next two and take down the Quarriers.
For totaling on the tournament, Lily Ranschau had four aces, followed by Kennedy Buckneberg and Aftyn Heitkamp with three each. Logan Bly, Jaelyn Benson, Peyton Hove, and Aliyah Leedy all dropped two in as well.
Benson and Hove shared the duties to set up Garretson’s big hitters, tallying 35 and 26 assists, respectively.
Ranschau and Olson led the offensive charge with 18 kills over the four games. Buckneberg and Bly also reached double digits for the tournament, putting down 13 and 10 respectively. Mattea Fiegen chipped in nine and Leedy, seven.
Olson continued her big play at the net with nine block assists; Heitkamp mirrored that number. Bly had six block assists and one solo block on the tournament. Defensively Lauren Heesch protected the back court with 28 digs, Ranschau picked up 22, Benson 20. Buckneberg and Heitkamp each had 14 and Northrup and Hove each picked up 13.
The Blue Dragons returned to traditional play that next week playing the Baltic Bulldogs at the Dragons’ Lair. As always, Baltic pulled a big crowd, and the Garretson faithful were right there as well.
The first set lived up to the hype that the crowd brought with them as Garretson held a slight early lead but the Bulldogs knotted the game at 17-17. Garretson went on a small run, spreading the score to 21-18 before eventually capping it off with a 25-21 victory.
Baltic came back screaming in the second set grabbing a commanding 11-4 lead over the host team. Garretson struggled to gain any sort of momentum and battled unforced errors, dropping the set 16-25.
With the game knotted up and tensions running high, both teams were looking to grab the next set and the momentum. The Blue Dragons came out swinging. They had an early 5-4 lead over the visitors but quickly augmented that lead, pushing it to 11-7 and 18-11 before finishing it off with a 25-17 victory and taking a 2-1 lead.
However, the Bulldogs would not roll over and fought to a 15-9 lead over the Blue Dragons in the fourth set. While Garretson closed the gap late, a few decisions, ball rolls, and plays didn’t go their way and the home team narrowly lost the fourth set 22-25.
The tiebreaker set is a race to 15, and a race it was. Knotted early on at four a piece, Garretson and Baltic had high tensions and higher hopes to knock off their rival. Garretson, however, got a few key serves and played aggressively at the net, eventually winning the game 15-11 and taking down Baltic three sets to two.
The Blue Dragons ended with 31 kills and 63 digs on the night as a team. Ranschau put down 11 while picking up 15 digs. Bly and Buckneberg mirrored each other with nine finishing swings each. Benson and Hove each had 17 assists in the contest. Benson also caused a little havoc for the Bulldogs, serving up three aces. Heitkamp, Northrup, and Hove all chipped in one ace. Northrup and Heesch led the defense with 26 and 15 digs, respectively.
Then on Monday, Garretson opened their week against state line foe, Hills- Beaver Creek. The Patriots stole set one 25-21, taking advantage of every Garretson error.
Hills-Beaver Creek held the momentum and definitely used it to their advantage early in the second set, starting on a 8-2 run, but the Blue Dragons retaliated on the heels of strong serving by Lily Ranschau, running for 11 points in a row, giving Garretson a 14-8 lead. Garretson held that lead practically the entire set and evened the game at one a piece with a 25-18 win.
Garretson turned on the jets in set three (25-23) and four (25-13) quickly taking care of the visiting Patriots for a 3-1 victory.
Buckneberg paced the Blue Dragons with 15 kills tonight. Ranschau added 12, Olson, Bly, and Heitkamp all placed four that HBC couldn’t recover from.
Junior setter Peyton Hove put up 16 assists and picked up nine digs. Sophomore setter Jaelyn Benson had 11 assists while grabbing a dozen digs on the night’s contest. Bly paced the team with 20 digs.
Bly and Heitkamp each aced the Patriots three times. Hove knotted them up twice, and Buckneberg and Leedy each put an ace down once.
While Garretson is enjoying a 5-3 start, they still have tough competition down the road including a competitive section that is also home to Sioux Falls Christian.
The Blue Dragons are back in action tonight for the Big East Conference tournament. Garretson travels to Sioux Valley to take on McCook Central Montrose and then will play either Beresford or Sioux Valley. The Blue Dragons return to the Dragons’ Lair for championship Saturday.
The Garretson C and JV teams have also had a successful start to their seasons. They are each currently sitting at 2-1 and will resume play at home in the Dragons’ Lair on September 17 against Flandreau.
