5 in 5AAA

#2 posting 10.23.2006
your daily dose of girls volleybal news & information

SECTION 5AAA ACTION
It was the opening of the tournament season tonight and there were three games at Mpls Henry. Two contests went the distance in five. One was over & out in three.

In the first match was between #16 North and #17 Roosevelt with Roosevelt coming out on top in five. Roosevelt took game one 25-22. The Teddies led 14-5 and 23-10. North's Debbie Hulbert then served up nine points to close the gap to 23-20. In that string North's Chaundera Riley had five kills. Roosevelt got the side out, but missed their serve. North added one point on a four hit error by Roosevelt. A Riley passing error ended the game.
North won game two 25-20. The game was tied at 20 when after a side out, Hulbert served out with four straight points.
Roosevelt took control of game three early with a 10-3 lead with Selamawit Teffera's six straight points including four straight aces. Roosevelt led 20-10 after Roosevelt's Kiana Williams serve. North did close to 22-18, but three straight side outs and a North hitting error ended the game at 25-19.
The fourth game I was with my team, but North won 25-17 forcing game five.
Roosevelt established themselves early with a 8-2 lead. North tried to stop the momentum at 7-2. North did close to 9-7, but a kill by Roosevelt's Celia Thomas gave the edge back to the Teddies. After that I had to go into the hall for the coin flip for our game.

The #12St. Anthony/#13Minneapolis Henry game also went five, but the route was a bit different.
St. Anthony won the first two games with the first a 25-23 nailbiter. Henry led 22-21, but was in the net to tie it at 22. St.A had a kill off the middle, but then missed their serve. The next two points went to St. Anthony due to hitting errors.
Game two St. Anthony steamrolled Henry 25-9. Angela Melland of St. Anthony served up seven points to make it 13-2. It didn't improve for Henry after that with Nicole Binder serving the last five points.
Game three marked Henry's comeback, but it was a comeback only true in storybooks. St. Anthony led 9-1 after their first two servers. On top of that Henry's first eight servers in that game all ended their serve on a miss. St. Anthony led 23-20, but missed their serve to give it back to Henry. Wendy Vang came in and served the last four points to give Henry their first win 25-23.
Game four was another magical comeback for Henry. The Patriots did take their first lead after Stef Zappa's serve 11-10. They maintained the lead until Margi Huss served up six straight for St. Anthony to give them the momentum and lead 22-17. They too missed their serve to make it 22-18. Courtney Phillips served three straight points and then Wendy Vang came in to get the next two to make it 23-22. A hitting error gave the ball back to St. A. A missed serve gave the ball back and on Zappa's serve St. Anthony had a serving error to end it 25-23.
Henry won the toss and the serve. Zappa got the first ball in, but missed her next serve. The energy and emotion involved got the adrenaline carousing through the veins for Henry and the balls were hit with a bit more oomph. Henry never got the critical first ball side out and it was over after three servers 15-5. It marked the second straight year St. Anthony ended Henry's season in five games. It marked the third straight year Henry lost in the opening round in five games.

In the final game of the night #9Minneapolis South beat Roosevelt in three 8, 16, 10. In game two South had many hitting errors that resulted in Roosevelt points.

Next up: tomorrow morning with more results