Day 2: One #1 Left

#2 posting 11.9.2007
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DAY 2: One #1 Left
Today Lakeville North lost to Shakopee in the "Battle of the day" in four. With the LN loss that leaves only Windom in class A as the only remaining #1 team. There is only one undefeated left too as St. Cloud Cathedral swept DGF in the AA semis.

AAA
I got to the first game a tad late as Shakopee already had a 4-0 lead. It was 7-4 before I found a seat. Once seated I saw electricity on the court. No other game had the buzz in the crowd. In fact no one else had the crowd. Later on that. Shakopee squeaked out the first game on a pair of kills by Wittman to break a 24 all tie. LN had their side out game working well in game two with a 25-19 win. LN sided out at .750 that contest. Game three was another tight affair with Shakopee pulling it out. LN led 18-16 when a run of three put Shakopee in the advantage. They never trailed after that but were tied four times. This time Maggie Geske had a kill to finish the game. The fourth game broke Shako's way on a 9-1 run from a 14-11 deficit to a 20-15 advantage. LN took two time outs in that stretch with only one stopping the momentum. Wittman had five kills in the stretch. LN kept within distance and forced Shako to take a time out at 23-21. A tip kill side out by Geske and a hitting error sent the Sabres to the championship round.
In the second semifinal Andover swept Woodbury in a fairly even game 19, 22, 19. In game one Andover closed with four straight points. In game two it was 23-22 before the Huskies closed out with two points. Again it was 22-19 in game three with Andover finishing with three straight.

A
Then it was off to the A semis. Windom made quick work out of Chisholm and Bethlehem Academy made surprisingly quick work of Mayer Lutheran. In game 3 of the Windom/Chisholm contest Windom only had two positions serve. They ran off 7 in the first server, and 15 in the second. it was 24-1 before Chisholm picked up their second side out.
FBA built quick leads in each of their games with advantages of 15-6, 15-2, and 15-8 respectively.

AA
In the AA semis, all eyes turned to the battle of the unbeatens-- DGF and St. Cloud Cathedral, the #2 and #3 teams in the final poll. For the second straight night it was better to be the lower team in the poll as Cathedral put on a strong performance in a sweep. It appeared DGF was caught off balance in game one and never got the flow they enjoyed against Jordan the night before. In game one SCC got off to a quick 13-7 lead. In game two it was tight with a tie at 19. A three point put SCC in the lead for good. In the last six points for SCC four were via kills Anna Zyvoloski. DGF did have a lead as late as 17-15 in game three, but a 7-1 run with three points off DGF errors put SCC in the drivers seat.

The first game of the day started off as four gamer, the last game ended in four. Marshall will make it two Southwest conference teams in the finals joining Windom. Marshall won the first game 25-23 after trailing 23-22. Stewartville returned the favor with taking game two. Marshall led 19-18 when Stewartville ran off six straight. In game three Marshall broke free from a 21 all tie with a 4-1 run. Anna Full had a block and a kill in the finish. Game four was in the command of Tigers---from Marshall----right from the start. They led 3-0 to begin and built it up to 18-10.

NUMBER CRUNCHING
team, fbso/att, fbso%, runs 3+, points scored, points allowed
AAA
Shakopee 23/47 .489; 12, 72, 27
Lakeville North 23/47, 13, .489, 66, 23

Andover 18/36, .500, 11, 57, 25
Woodbury 17/37, .459, 6, 35, 18

AA
St. Cloud Cathedral 25/41, .610, 8, 60, 25
DGF 19/40, .475, 5, 38, 15

Marshall 25/46, .543, 13, 61, 28
Stewartville 18/47, .383, 11, 59, 34

A
Windom 19/26, .731, 10, 48, 21
Chisholm 10/24 .417, 2, 13, 27

Bethlehem Academy 17/27, .630, 11, 54, 12
Mayer Lutheran 7/25 .280, 2, 26, 21

Tomorrow should have a great A final between similar teams. Look at FBA's allowed points only 12. That is close to flawless. This is the #1 vs #3 team in class A.
DGF didn't make too many mistakes, but defensively they were victims of the mark of the Z---Zyvoloski with 33 kills.
Marshall will try to keep the lower polled team winning in AA. They will also look to end the only unbeaten streak in Minnesota.

In the AAA match up Shakopee needs to remember that the championship is tomorrow evening, and it wasn't today. Warning: look at DGF after their win over Jordan. The real finals are on Saturday.

CROWD?
I am quite disappointed in the crowd (except for the LN/Shako game). Apparently the Anoka-Hennepin district didn't have school today and the fans that were in full force for Andover and Blaine stayed away in droves. That was sad.
I also find it rare to see any other schools watching the tournament, unless they are in the state tournament. Where is the support for the sport from the players in the state that didn't make it? If you want to be in the state tournament a team should go to get the atmosphere and start dreaming. I find it odd I don't see more letter jackets from around the state.

Next up: tomorrow morning. It won't be rushed tomorrow morning. The first championship is at 1 pm.