Out & About: Invasion Black/Northern Lights

#2 posting 4.22.2008
your daily dose of girls volleyball news & information

NORTHERN LIGHTS QUALIFIER
17 GOLD CHAMPIONSHIP
INVASION BLACK 2, NORTHERN LIGHTS 0

Invasion, a team from Kansas City, beat Northern Lights 2-0 in the NLQ 17 Championship. The Lights fell behind in each game by wide margins and had to expend a lot of energy trying to climb the mountain.

In game one Invasion jumped out to a 7-1 lead when NL took a time out. Jessica Kopp had two kills to lead the charge for Invasion, both on side out balls. Invasion had three straight side outs to start the contest while the Lights were only 1/3. NL fell further behind at 12-4 before starting their long climb back. Brianna Haugen had two kills, one on a slide and then a quick to start a 7-2 run. NL was helped in that run by four Invasion hitting errors. But the Lights also helped invasion with two straight side outs on missed serves. NL cut the margin to 16-14 on an ace by Karlee Lusen, but Kaylee Miller delivered two straight kills for Invasion to put the margin back to 4. The game see sawed with a 4/3 split with five straight side outs until a NL hitting error opened up the gap. NL took a time out, but Invasion scored on a block right after the break to lead 23-18. Invasion finished the first game with two points from Kopp on a kill and then a block.

Game two started off worse for Lights as they fell behind 10-1 (10-2 after the side out) after only two Invasion servers. The back breaker was a 8 point run on the second serve with five points at the hands of Morgan Reynolds (3 blocks, 2 kills). Even a NL time out a 7-1 couldn't stop the freight train. Invasion bumped it up to 14-4 before NL mounted their rally. After a block by Haugen, Brittany Chambers served up three straight. That started a scoring run where five straight NL players squeezed points off of serves. NL ramped up their side out defense as well stopping the Invasion three straight times. As a result NL tied the game at 17. Invasion was forced to call time at 14-8. They got the point then on a Chambers missed serve, but Haugen gave the ball right back to NL with a slide. Chelsea Fogarty had three kills in the 13-3 run up to 17. NL took a 20-19 lead after three straight points, the last two coming on Invasion hitting errors. The game was tied three more times after that, the last coming at 22 all. On Miller's serve for Invasion Kate Harris, the setter, had a kill which brought about a NL time out. Ashton Bodenstab, the Libero had a kill after the TO to put Invasion on the verge 24-22. Haugen prevented the end with a kill. Haugen served for the Lights and Aubri Renshaw ended the match with a kill.

photos: #1 Stephanie Kent for Northern Lights with a jump serve. #2. Chelsea Fogarty hits through the Invasion window. #3. Morgan Reynolds reaches high for a hit for Invasion. Blocking for NL is Kelsey Mattai and Brittany Chambers. photos by kja.

INVASION BLACK
Rotation; player, School, position, aces-blocks-kills-total
1. Kate Harris, S 0-0-1----1
2. Aubri Renshaw, OH 1-1.5-3---5.5
3. Jessica Kopp, MH 1-2-5---8
4. Morgan Reynolds, RH 1-2.5-4---7.5
5. Kaylee Miller, OH 1-0.5-8---9.5
6. Brooke Fay, MH 0-0.5-3---3.5
L: Ashton Bodenstab 0-0-1---1
totals: 4-8-25---37 points, 13 points on NL errors

NORTHERN LIGHTS
1. Madeline Haben, Holy Angels, S 0-1-0---1
2. Chelsea Fogarty, Belle Plaine, OH 0-0-5---5
3. Karlee Lursen, Eastview, BR 2-0-0----2
3fr Kelsey Mattai, White Bear Lake MH 0-0-2---2
4. Stephanie Kent, Eastview 0-2-1---3
5. Brittany Chambers, Jordan 0-0-4---4
6. Brianna Haugen, Mpls Southwest 0-3-8----11
Totals: 2-6-20---28 points, 13 points on Invastion errors

TRENCH PLAYER
When Morgan Reynolds was in the front row, the point % was .627 (32-19) clearly the best of any player today. Her wing span made it hard to hit on NL's Left side.

Invasion Black 25 25 50
Northern Lights 18 23 41

BY THE NUMBERS
team, fbso/att; fbso%; %earned, %allowed
Invasion Black 14/24-.583; .740; .317
Northern Lights 12/24-.500; .683; .260
3+runs: NL 6, IB 5
missed serves: NL 6, IB 1
NL cut their own throats with six missed serves on the day.

ROTATIONS
INVASION
1 Harris 8-7 .533
2 Renshaw 15-7 .682
3 Kopp 9-5 .643
4 Reynolds 6-8 .429
5 Bodenstab 10-9 .526
6 Fay 3-5 .375
totals: 50-41 .549

NORTHERN LIGHTS
1 Haben 8-6 .571
2 Fogarty 5-14 .263
3 Lursen 8-10 .444
4 Kent 6-9 .400
5 Chambers 9-6 .600
6 Haugen 6-6 .500
Totals: 41-50 .451

Next up: tomorrow morning. I hope to add the photos later in the day on this and the NL 16 game I posted yesterday.

Out & About: Northern Lights 16/Ascis Mavs

#2 posting 4.21.2008
your daily dose of girls volleyball news & information

NORTHERN LIGHTS QUALIFIER
16 GOLD POOL 1
NORTHERN LIGHTS 1s 2, ASICS MAVS 0
Today I was able to catch a few games at the Minneapolis Convention Center, host of the Northern Lights Qualifier. Unfortunately I was not able to get to the court (they have 54 courts going on at once) on time. When I did get there I saw the Northern Lights 16 1s beat ASICS Mavs in two 25-17. In game one NL won 25-19. The 16s are primarily from the 2010 class.

NL started off game two with a 3-0 lead after a pair of kills by Katie Froehle and Tori Dixon. Lauren Grant added an ace. Lights were able to get runs of three like this five times in this game while Asics had two three point runs. The Lights gave the Mavs two points in their first four on missed serves. At that time NL led 11-4. The Mavs were able to close to 14-11 on a 7-3 run. Liz Gohde had two straight kills to close the gap for the Mavs. Ashley Wittman had five of the next eight Lights' points, including an ace, to make it 21-13. Grant finished up with three kills in the last four NL points.

Later in the day NL beat Tampa Bay Black 25-12; 25-15 for the championship.

photos: #1. Ashley Wittman hits from the left side. #2. Mollie Geske gets the dig for Northern Lights. #3 Tori Dixon catches the Mavs off guard going down the right line. photos by kja

NORTHERN LIGHTS
Rotation; player, School, position, aces-blocks-kills-total
1. Lauren Grant, Eastview, RH 1-0-4---5
2. Katie Froehle, Eden Prairie, OH 0-0-1---1
2br Danielle Dombeck, Farmington 0-0-1----1
3. Tori Dixon, Burnsville, MH 1-1-5---7
3br Kelli Elhardt, Blaine DS 0-0-0---0
4. Molly Kreklow, Blaine, S 0-0-0----0
5. Ashley Wittman, Shakopee, OH 2-1-4---7
6. Natalie Walseth, Simley, MH 0-0-0---0
L: Mollie Geske, Shakopee
totals: 4-2-15---21, 4 points on Asics Mavs errors

ASCIS MAVS
totals: 2-0-8--10, 7 points on NL errors

BY THE NUMBERS
team, fbso/att; fbso%; points, %earned, %allowed
Northern Lights 10/13 .769
Ascis Mavs 5/12 .417
3+runs: NL 5, AM 2
missed serves: NL 3, AM 0

ROTATIONS
1. Grant 4-2 .667
2. Froehle 4-4 .500
3. Dixon 5-2 .714
4. Kreklow 4-2 .667
5. Wittman 5-3 .625
6. Walseth 3-4 .429
totals: 25-17 .595

I tried to get this story up earlier in the evening, but a thunderstorm complete with lightning kept the computer off line. I also have a story on the Northern Lights 17s competing in their Open championship which I will get up tomorrow.

I also heard from a couple of sources that Molly Kreklow may be headed to Delano.

next up: tomorrow.