With their season on the line, who else would the Austin Packer girls volleyball team turn to but its seniors.

Thursday, October 26, 2000

With their season on the line, who else would the Austin Packer girls volleyball team turn to but its seniors.

The digging of Stacy Fisher and the hitting and serving of Kareen Coleman helped the Packers pull out a 6-15, 15-8, 16-14, 3-15, 15–11 win over visiting Rochester John Marshall Wednesday night at the Packer gym in an opening round Section 1AAA playoff match.

"We had the momentum on and off all night," Coleman said, " and we had it at the end when we needed it."

Coleman and Fisher helped the Packers dig out of a hole after losing the fourth game 15-3. Coleman had five of her match-high 13 kills in the fifth game as the Packers jumped to an early 4-0 lead.

John Marshall battled back and pulled as close as 9-8 in the fifth game on a service ace by Erin Effle, but junior Andrea Miller gave Austin a spark off the bench, pushing Austin’s lead back to 12-8 with an ace serve and a 23-for-23 serving night.

"She knew (serving) would be her job, her role on this team," Austin coach Treasure Ransom said. "She has been serving so well in practice that I felt comfortable putting her in."

JM’s Leny Velez pulled JM within 12-11, but Coleman came up with a timely kill, then stepped to the service line and recorded two aces to give Austin the win.

"Maybe we won the fourth game too easily," JM coach Brian Lund said. "A lot of times your mental attitude is not as sharp in a game following a blowout."

JM was also hindered by an injury to Effle late in the third game. The senior hitter jumped up for a kill attempt, then landed on a teammate’s foot and rolled her ankle. Effle missed the remainder of the third game and most of the fourth game, yet was effective in the fifth, recording an ace serve and three of her 10 kills.

"I’m a senior, there’s no way I’m not playing," Effle said.

Effle said the Rockets were confident and played much better than their previous meeting with Austin this season. Austin beat JM 3-1 at JM on Oct. 12.

"We thought we had this won even before we got here," she said. "We were coming for revenge. We had a lot of hitting errors the last time we played and didn’t justify ourselves as a team."

Austin (11-13-2) will travel to top-seeded Owatonna (24-4) Friday for a Section 1AAA quarterfinal match at 7 p.m.