State Volleyball: Class AA Quarterfinals: Lady Wolverines survive scare by Visitation

Wadena-Deer Creek opened its state title defense by surviving a scare against Visitation on Thursday during the opening round of the Minnesota Class AA state tournament at the Xcel Energy Center.

Emily Miron slammed down a match-high 27 kills and seven blocks and Brittney Noon contributed 16 kills for the Lady Wolverines, who fended off the upset-minded Blazers 3-2 (25-12, 18-25, 22-25, 25-15, 15-3).

Wadena-Deer Creek opened the match by going on a 8-1 run in the first set and breezed to a 25-12 victory. The Blazers contributed 10 attack errors to the cause, and the Lady Wolverines’ one-two punch combined for six kills. Noon also served up two aces and Miron had three blocks.

Then Wadena-Deer Creek dug themselves in a hole by dropping the next two sets

“We were starting to get a little emotional and frustrated after the first game,” Wadena-Deer Creek coach Sue Volkmann said. “Visitation found some weaknesses in our defense, which made our girls get frustrated easily. It sort of snowballed from there and kept getting worse.”

The Blazers sped out of the gate in the second game, forcing Wadena-Deer Creek to play catch-up the majority of the set. Trailing 9-4, the Lady Wolverines went on a 5-0 run to tie the score, 9-9. Elsa Ayotte put Visitation ahead for good from there with a kill. Samantha Dumler added three kills and Martha DeMeules served up an ace to make it 16-10—which forced another timeout by the Lady Wolverines.

“We started taking longer and longer timeouts as the match progressed in order to get the girls to calm down,” Volkmann said. “I felt the longer timeouts seemed to help as the girls did start getting calmer and played a bit better.”

With the Blazers nursing a 21-14 lead, the Lady Wolverines made one last run as Miron notched two kills and Avery Jackson served up back-to-back aces to trim the lead to 22-17.

In the third set, the Lady Wolverines trailed 22-14 before going on 6-0 run, highlighted by four kills and a block from Miron that made it 22-20. Miron would add two more kills before Dumler’s kill gave Visitation the 25-22 win.

The Lady Wolverines built a 20-9 lead in the fourth set and went on to win, 25-15.
“I think our killer instinct kick in when we won that fourth game,” Volkmann said. “Our confidence level took a big leap and we started to get more emotional. Our mindset was we wanted to put [Visitation] away as quickly as we can.”

Wadena-Deer Creek did just that, racing to a 8-1 lead before Visitation was forced to call timeout. Miron had four kills, Noon two and six attack errors by the Blazers took care of the rest during the 15-3, game five rout.

“I was impressed with how quickly we took control,” Volkmann said. “We never gave them a chance to get into it.”

Caitlin Volkmann also contributed at the net with six kills in the victory. The junior also had 19 digs and went a perfect 25-for-25 at the service line with an ace. Hope Theisen was the Lady Wolverines backcourt leader with 24 digs.

Jackson was 23-for-23 with three ace serves and Sydney Schissel went 22-for-22 with two aces as the Lady Wolverines only committed one service error and three serve receive errors. Both Jackson and Schissel also contributed 10 digs each in the victory.

Heather Theisen finished with 39 set assists and 11 digs.
Anne Debertin led Visitation with 19 kills and 20 digs in the loss.

Wadena-Deer Creek (28-4) will play No. 1 Marshall at 5 p.m. Friday

State Volleyball: Class AA Quaterfinals
No. 4 Wadena-Deer Creek vs. Visitation on November 10
Lady Wolverines defeated the Blazers 3-2 (25-12, 18-25, 22-25, 25-15, 15-3)
WDC Stats
Kills—Caitlin Volkmann 6, Melissa Moenkedick 1, Brittney Noon 16, Avery Jackson 2, Heather Theisen 1, Emily Miron 27, Hope Theisen 1
Digs—Volkmann 19, Moenkedick 1, Noon 6, Jackson 10, Heather Theisen 11, Miron 1, Hope Theisen 24, Sydney Schissel 10
Serving—Volkmann 25 for 25 with an ace, Noon 14 for 15 with two aces, Jackson 23 for 23 with three aces, Heather Theisen 12 for 12, Hope 7 for 7, Schissel 22 for 22 with two aces
Blocks—Volkmann 1, Moenkedick 2, Jackson 1, Heather Theisen 1, Miron 7,
Set Assists—Heather Theisen 39

Visitation Stats
Kills—Martha DeMeules 2, Samantha Dumler 9, Elsa Ayotte 6, Anne Debertin 19, Mary Mullen 10, Katie Supplee 1
Digs—Kayla Adducci 12, DeMeules 10, Dumler 8, Debertin 20, Mullen 2, Supplee 18, MacKenzie Grutzner 1
Serving—Adducci 16 for 16 with two aces, DeMeules 10 for 11 with an ace, Dumler 17 for 17, Debertin 7 for 8, Supplee 10 for 10, Sarah Leach 1 for 1, Grutzner 18 for 18
Blocks—Adducci 3, DeMeules 1, Dumler 1, Ayotte 1, Debertin 2, Mullen 5
Set Assists—Adducci 40