Knights earn sweep in final WCC match

Sam Peterson
Grant County Herald

West Central Area had not played a volleyball match in a week, but they finally got back on the floor in Montevideo against the Thunderhawks Oct. 17. After shaking off a bit of the rust in the first set from such a long break, the Knights cruised their way to a 3-0 sweep to improve to 15-8 overall and 9-5 in the West Central Conference. The final competition of the regular season for WCA was a tournament in Fergus Falls Oct. 19.

WCA 3

Montevideo 0

While it was a sweep for the Knights, the match did not start off too well for WCA. Montevideo jumped on the Knights and led 15-9 early in the game. “It was a slow and quiet start right out of the gates. We struggled in serve receiving and communicating,” head coach Melissa Foslien said.

Thanks to serving runs from Izzy Puchalski and Whitney Westrom, the Knights came back to tie the set at 19-19. The lead bounced back and forth before WCA finally finished them off with a 25-23 win in the first.

The second set was total domination from the Knights. The score was tied at 8-8 in the second set when Mya Foslien served 14 straight points and the Knights sprinted away with a 25-9 victory.

Montevideo did not let the big loss affect their play in the third set and they were right back to giving WCA all they could handle. With the score tied at 12-12, Puchalski served for five straight points to open up a 17-12 advantage. The pesky Thunderhawks came back to tie the set at 22-22. The Knights scored the next two points before losing on a long rally to make it 24-23. The match point was won by the Knights thanks to an ace block from Puchalski to complete the sweep.

The tandem of Macy Grosz and Mya Foslien were the two best offensive players on the floor for the Knights. Mya Foslien was the only player to have more than eight kills, leading the team with 21. Grosz set up nearly all of those kills, finishing with 32 set assists and Madelyn Westrom chipped in with four. Madi Fagre was second on the team in kills with eight and Jaclynn Nelson added three. 

At the service line, the Knights finished the match with eight aces, four of them from Puchalski, two from Grosz and one each from Mya Foslien and Whitney Westrom. 

On defense, the Knights finished the game with three players in double figure digs. Mya Foslien led the team with 25 digs, Madelyn Westrom dug out 17 and Alaina Sykora chipped in with 10. At the net, WCA had seven blocks with three from Nelson and one each from Whitney Westrom, Puchalski, Fagre and Mya Foslien.

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