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The Riverland Community College volleyball team has improved by leaps and bounds over the past two seasons, but it didn’t have enough in it to finish off Minnesota West (10-11 overall) as the Blue Devils lost by scores of 15-25, 25-14, 25-20, 23-25, 15-13 in Riverland Gym Wednesday.

The Blue Devils tied the final game up at 13-13 when Grace Frost put down a tip kill, but Minnesota West’s Katarina Polzine blocked a hit to make it 14-13 and West finished the match with a kill in the back row.

Riverland sophomore libero Mackenna Krause, a Stewartville grad, had a back row kill to win the fourth game 25-23 and she also served an ace to give RCC a 5-2 lead in the final game.

“It was so fun. We talked a lot more than the first time we played them,” Krause said. “We’ve improved so much and our energy was so good. They just hit it where we weren’t at the end.”

Krause finished with 25 digs.

RCC received most of its hitting from Sydney Taylor of Lanesboro, Camryn McQuery and Austin grad Joy Deng also had some big kills and blocks as well.

Krause and McQuery, a sophomore from Waseca, have both played huge roles in turning RCC’s volleyball program around after the Blue Devils had won just a handful of matches in the previous five seasons before last year.

“Playing games like this just makes us more competitive. We’re just trying to get better every day,” McQuery said.

RCC stats: Makenna Krause, 25 digs, 4 ace serves; Hilary Minnich, 38 set assists; Sydney Taylor, 15 kills, 20 digs; Camryn McQuery, 12 kills; Joy Deng, 7 kills, 3 blocks