The Garretson Blue Dragons capped off an impressive regular season with an 18-4 record but are now entering the postseason 0-0. They will be facing Baltic tonight (Thursday) at 7:00 p.m. in the Dragon's Lair.
The Blue Dragons rounded out their last week of regular season play with three matches, all at home in the Dragons' Lair: Sioux Valley on Monday, Colman-Egan on Tuesday, Dell Rapids St. Mary on Friday.
Garretson took down the Cossacks in three straight sets, a nice win after almost a week between competitions.
The Blue Dragons put up 6 aces (Lily Ranschau - 2, Jaelyn Benson - 2), 40 assists (Peyton Hove - 19, Benson - 9), 40 kills (Kennedy Buckneberg - 11, Ranschau - 9, Logan Bly - 6), and 44 digs (Buckneberg - 9, Ranschau - 9, Lexi Gawarecki - 9) against Sioux Valley.
The Tuesday night matchup against the Hawks was just as exciting as it should have been.
Going into the game, Garretson and Colman-Egan had mirrored their seasons, each with three losses, a few impressive wins over ranked opponents, and teams that both set up similarly when looking at heavy hitters, defense, and serving aggressiveness.
Coming off the emotions of the senior presentations to begin the night, the Blue Dragons were flat, making some costly errors in the beginning of the first set. This carried into the second set as the visiting Hawks took the early 2-0 lead with 25-19 and 25-18 wins.
However, the Blue Dragons showed off their grit bouncing back in the third and fourth sets. Finding holes in Colman-Egan's defense and keeping the ball in play, Garretson evened up the score 2-2 with 25-18 victories in sets three and four.
Looking at the parallel tracks the two teams have taken to get to this point in the season, no one should have been surprised that it went to a decisive fifth set.
Garretson started with the serve, but as had been the case all night, it didn't make a difference because these two evenly matched teams traded up for the first third of the game, neither team able to separate themselves by a point or more.
That was, until the Hawks put down three straight to go up 8-11. Coach Northrup called a timeout, hoping for a refocus of his troops. It worked, as the Blue Dragons were able to close the gap and tie up the game 13-13. Despite the momentum shift, Garretson was unable to close the deal after hitting one in the net and then having their block be used, thus dropping the fifth set 13-15.
"As frustrating as the ending of that game was, I give the girls credit. They didn't give up and pushed a really great team to a fifth set. That shows they can compete. They can hang with anyone. And on any other day, I'd say those last two points could look a little different," said assistant coach Kelsey Buchholz.
The Blue Dragons came away with 51 kills, 43 assists, 9 blocks, and 91 digs. Lily Ranschau, Kennedy Buckneberg, and Logan Bly led the offensive attack with 14, 13, 11 kills, respectively. Peyton Hove (25) and Jaelyn Benson (14) paced their hitters with 39 assists on the night. Lizzie Olson had 2 solo blocks and 4 block assists on the defensive side and Ranschau, Lexi Gawarecki, and Buckneberg held up the back row with 20, 20, and 17 digs.
Garretson had the chance to get back in the win column Friday night after their original game against the Dell Rapids St. Mary Cardinals was postponed from earlier this month.
Despite their .500 record, the Cardinals gave the Blue Dragons a run with their tough defense. However, Garretson was able to prevail in three straight sets: 25-14, 25-19, 27-25.
"That last set was a nice win for our girls," said Buchholz. "It was good for them to see they could come out on the right end of a close match, especially after what happened earlier in the week."
Statistical leaders for the Blue Dragons on the offensive attack were Buckneberg - 11, Ranschau - 5, and Anna Jones - 5. Putting up the assists were Benson with 13 and Hove with 9. Hove also led the team with 13 digs, followed by 10 digs apiece by Bly and Ranschau.
The win secured a first round bye in region play for the Blue Dragons, finishing second in their region, behind Sioux Falls Christian.
"We've had a great season so far and I'm really proud of what the girls have accomplished," stated Buchholz. "But this is where it counts. All teams are 0-0 and it's win or go home. We have to take care of business and especially just focus on what we can control, our side of the court."
First round play happened on Tuesday night with Baltic hosting Dell Rapids and Tri-Valley hosting West Central. The winners went on to round two on Thursday night, games hosted by Sioux Falls Christian (v. Tri-Valley) and Garretson (v. Baltic).
