Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Volleyball Breezes Into Semifinals

The Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Buccaneers looked laser focused in the first set of their quarterfinal round sweep of the Henning Hornets at the Class A State High School Volleyball Tournament.  Scores were 25-11, 25-21, 25-18.

The Buccaneers had 3 total errors in a super efficient first set and the Henning Hornets also were efficient with 5 total errors.  The official statistics had WEM with a very good .444 hitting percentage in the first set and Henning hit .167.  The Bucs had just one hitting error in the set.

Something about the Hornets repeated mistakes in the second set took the sting out of Waterville-Elysian-Morristown's focus.  The Buccaneers hit .025 in the set and Henning hit .073 but I had 11 total errors in the second set for the Hornets and 9 errors for the Buccaneers.

The third set brought back focus and Waterville-Elysian-Morristown hit .378 with 6 total errors.  The MSHSL official statistics had the Bucs with a .264 hitting percentage for the match, Henning .108.  The Buccaneers statistics had their team with a .227 total hitting percentage for the match.

The official statistics recorded junior Toryn Richards with 13 kills and a .324 hitting percentage for the match.  The Bucs stats had 11 kills for Richards (same as my statistics) and a hitting percentage of .256.  She also had 13 digs on the official stat sheet and 15 digs from the Bucs statisticians.

Senior Delaney Donahue also had a double double according to the Bucaneer stats with 10 kills, 10 digs and a .286 hitting percentage.  Officials statistics recorded 9 kills, a .318 hitting percentage and 10 digs.

Junior Kylie Pittman tallied 8 kills, 6 digs according to the team statistics.  Senior Trista Hering was very good at the net in the first set and finished with 4 blocks according to the team statistics, 9 kills and a .316 hitting percentage.

Junior setter Ellie Ready collected 30 assists, two dump kills, 9 digs according to Bucs stats.  Ready had 4 of her team's 8 ace serves.  Five different WEM players recorded a ace serve.

The #2 seed in the tournament and #2 rated team in the final coaches poll will play fellow Gopher Conference member, #3 seed #7 ranked Medford in the semifinals at 3:00 p.m. Friday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

KDHL Radio, 920 AM and the KDHL app will have coverage starting at 2:35 p.m. if the match is on time.

Both teams are assured of playing on the final day of the high school volleyball season Saturday and one will of course be playing for a state title.