ST.

Friday, November 05, 1999

ST. PETER – The Awesome Blossoms volleyball season is over.

It was one win away from being a fantastic season.

Were it not for the mighty Vikings of Hayfield, it might have been.

Thursday night in the Section 2AA semifinals, the Vikings defeated the Blossoms for the second time this year.

Early in the season, the Vikings defeated the Blossoms, 2-1, in the championship of the Hayfield Lions Fall Classic.

The Vikings beat the Blossoms in the Section 2AA semifinals, 15-13, 12-15, 15-9, 15-5.

"We had a fabulous season," Blooming Prairie coach Mary Worke said. "We finished 25-4 with a 14-0 record in the Gopher Conference. Our only two legitimate losses came at the hands of Hayfield. Our other two losses came in tournaments where we lost the match due to total points won. We executed some things well tonight, but we made too many unforced errors."

The Vikings (28-3), meanwhile, are one step away from the Class AA State Tournament.

They will face the Belle Plaine Tigers in the Section finals at 8 p.m. Saturday at Gustavus Adolphus.

The Tigers defeated Sibley East 15-3, 15-12, 15-6 in the other semifinal. One play in that match said it all. Late in the first game, 5-foot, 10-inch freshman Cassie Wolpern of Belle Plaine made a solo block against Sibley East’s 6-4 middle hitter Tara Bjorkland.

Back to the Vikings and Blossoms.

The first game of the match was tied at 7-7 before the Vikings went out to a 13-8 lead. The Blossoms then scored the next four points to make it 13-12. The Vikings then scored a point to make it 14-12. Then Blooming Prairie’s Ranell Goette scored a point with a kill. Serve then exchanged hands seven times before Hayfield’s Sheri Swanson scored the decisive point on an ace block.

"We were fired up," Swanson said. "We came out strong. We were really pumped up after winning the first game."

The match featured four excellent middle hitters, the Blooming Prairie senior tandem of Goette and Jana Peterson and the Hayfield junior duo of Swanson and Nikki Kindschy.

Swanson and Kindschy won the match on the scoreboard, but lost their fair share of battles with Goette and Peterson.

Swanson had 21 kills and four ace blocks in the contest. Kindschy had 17 kills and also four ace blocks. The two senior outside hitters of Hayfield, Kristin Peterson and Kristin Petersen each had 11 kills. Jana Wohlers had 32 set assists and Lacy Wangen 26. Wangen also had 17 digs.

For the Blossoms it was Goette with 20 kills and Peterson with 17. Missy Avery made 11 and Kari Olson 10. Avery and Peterson combined on five ace blocks and Peterson had one solo.

The score was tied at 9-9 in Game Two when half of the lights went out in the gym. It took almost an half hour before play resumed.

The Blossoms went on to win the game 15-12 with Goette getting an ace block on Kindschy for the final point.

The momentum looked to be in the Blossoms favor, but the Vikings quickly changed it, going out to a 5-0 and 9-2 lead in the third game with Kindschy scoring three points on her serve.

There were then eight side outs before the Blossoms scored three points on Jessica Callahan’s serve behind Avery scoring on two kills and Peterson making an ace block.

Hayfield then scored two straight points on two kills by Swanson.

"I love hitting," Swanson said, "I also made some tips tonight. They said the middle was wide open for tips and when I saw that I went there with the tip. I think one time they had three blockers on me and I scored on a tip."

It stayed stuck at 11-5 as long as it did at 9-9 in Game Two.

There were nine side outs before the Blossoms scored a point and then six more before they scored again to make it 11-7.

Hayfield’s Kellie Krueger then scored on a tip to give the Vikings a side out and Swanson scored a point on a kill on Krueger’s serve to make it 12-7. After a couple of more side outs, the Blossoms scored two points on Olson’s serve with Goette making a standing kill for one of the points.

"They left the door open for us," Worke said, "but we didn’t quite make it all the way through."

The Vikings then made it to game point with Kindschy scoring two straight points on a kill and an ace block. Krueger then closed out the game with a service ace.

"Nikki said before the match she was going to help me out when I was passing in the back court," Swanson said. "She did, with some great blocks. That was her goal."

Game Four saw the Blossoms go up 3-2 early, but the Vikings again regained the momentum and scored eight straight points – three on Wangen’s serve and five on Kelly Thompson’s – with Kindschy manning the middle. The Blossoms never recovered from the onslaught.

"Blooming Prairie is a very good team," Gopher Conference coaching foe Franz Boelter of Bethlehem Academy commented about the Blossoms earlier in the week. "How far they go depends if they can fight through adversity."

Adversity finally got the better of them as the Vikings went on to win 15-5 scoring the last three points on Krueger’s serve with Swanson making two kills.