BLOOMING PRAIRIE – The Awesome Blossoms have been incredibly awesome this season.

Friday, October 15, 1999

BLOOMING PRAIRIE – The Awesome Blossoms have been incredibly awesome this season. Thursday night they won the Gopher Conference outright with a victory in four games over the second place Bethlehem Academy Cardinals. The scores were 15-6, 10-15, 15-8, 15-5. The Blossoms are now one victory away from a perfect conference season. Right now they are 13-0 in the Gopher, 20-3 overall. They finish the regular season on Tuesday when they host Glenville-Emmons.

"Our goal at the beginning of the year was to go undefeated in the Conference," Blooming Prairie middle hitter Jana Peterson said. "We are almost there. Everybody played really well tonight, Faribault played really well. We started out strong and played hard throughout."

"This was a huge win for us," BP coach Mary Worke said. "It was historic. This is only the second time that Blooming Prairie has won a Gopher Conference volleyball title. The first came in 1975. That team was 6-0 in the conference."

The Blossoms took control of the historic match from the outset. They went up 6-1 in the first game. The Cardinals scored the next three points of the game but would get no closer. Janelle Iacovino served out the game with seven straight service points. She had two aces during the run and Ranell Goette made two kills and had an ace block.

The Cardinals pretty much controlled game two the whole way. They went up 8-4 and 14-7. The Blossoms then scored three points on Goette’s serve but were then thwarted in their come back with a kill by Katie Walsh to give the Cardinals a side out. Carrie Gillen then smashed in an ace serve for point 15 to tie the match up at one game apiece.

"The team was dwelling on their mistakes and getting a little down," Worke said. "I told them that we didn’t get this far by getting down on ourselves or blaming. We needed to keep on hitting and stay aggressive."

Game three was another nip and tuck battle before the Blossoms attack started to payoff. Missy Avery tied the game up at seven with a kill. Bethlehem Academy would then score a point on an ace serve but would score no more. BP scored four points on Sara Anderson’s serve on three kills by Peterson and an ace block by Avery. They scored twice more on Stephanie Thompson’s serve, she substituted for Peterson twice in this game, on ace blocks by Iacovino and Goette.

"I was upset the first time and I twisted my ankle a little the second time," Peterson said about the substitutions.

BP then scored the final two points of the game on Kari Olson’s serve.

Game four was never in doubt. The Blossoms broke out to a 6-3 lead then Jessica Callahan entered the fray for the first time. All she did was score seven straight points on her serve to make it 13-3.

"I wanted to get JC (Callahan) into the game," Worke said. "She usually substitutes for Kari Olson in the utility position but I substituted her for Ranell. There had been a couple of long volleys with Ranell moving back and forth across the net so I gave her a rest."

"She (Callahan) is a really good server," Peterson said. "We have complete confidence in her when she comes in."

The Cardinals scored two points to make it 13-5. Then Peterson powered in an ace serve to give the Blossoms game point but then hit one long. BA’s Emily Zweber then hit her serve long to give the Blossoms one last side out and they made it count with Olson getting the winning point on her serve.

Peterson had 12 kills and five blocks in the match; Avery 10 kills, 13 digs and five blocks; Goette nine kills, 10 digs and eight blocks; Anderson 31 set assists, and Iacovino was 13-of-13 serving with two aces.

Note – The Section 2AA, Subsection 5AA East coaches had their seeding meeting on Wednesday. Hayfield garnered the top seed, Blooming Prairie No. 2. Montgomery-Lonsdale is three, Triton four, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown five, Kasson-Mantorville six, Kenyon-Wanamingo seven, NRHEG eight, and Shattuck-St. Mary’s nine. Hayfield on Oct. 28 will host the winner of the NRHEG-Shattuck-St. Mary’s play in match while Blooming Prairie hosts Kenyon-Wanamingo. Start time is 7:00 p.m.