KoMets forced to adapt after Class AA Showcase tournament
The Class AA Showcase tournament is one of the biggest events on the high school volleyball calendar. With most of the top teams in the class competing in Burnsville over the weekend, it’s an opportunity to see where teams are at during this point of the season and try to learn and adapt from the data point they’ve acquired.
For the Kasson-Mantorville volleyball team, their performance in the weekend tournament that they have a ways to go in order to get back to where they were a yearago. With their kill leader Peyton Suess out of the lineup last week, the KoMets were forced to adapt and try some new players in new positions. As a result K-M dropped four out of the ve matches on the weekend including all three in pool play on September 22.
“The team didn’t compete well at all on Friday,” K-M volleyball coach Adam VanOort stated. “I had some new players in new positions and overall the team didn’t play with much poise and con dence in those first two matches. However, they were able to settle down and they competed in both of our matches on Saturday.”
The KoMets opened up with defeats to Belle Plaine, Holy Angels and Rocori on Friday night, but rebounded nicely against Roseau on Saturday morning before their tournament came to an end against Jordan. Such a performance is a reminder that they still need to weather the storm before reaching their ultimate goal, but VanOort was encouraged by the number of players who stepped up during the tournament.
“Obviously with Peyton out, we needed some hitters to step up and take more swings to get more kills than normal,” VanOort explained. “I thought that Caroline Braun, Emilee Terry and Mac Evans all stepped up their offense a bit on Saturday and Bailey Berge passed very well throughout the entire tournament. Abbey Bigelow came back from being sick and improved on Friday to Saturday and ended up setting well on Saturday. All three of our seniors did a really nice job from the serving line on Saturday too.”
The Showcase performance was disappointing, but the KoMets had a solid week leading up to it, taking a victory against Class A powerhouse Bethlehem Academy on September 18 before picking up HVL wins against Goodhue and Triton. The results ran their record up to 9-7 overall, but they remain undefeated in the HVL with a 3-0 record.
The conference record will be tested this week after the KoMets traveled to Rochester Lourdes on Tuesday night. They’ll head to Stewartville in what’s become a traditional section tournament preview on Thursday night and host Cannon Falls next Tuesday as the beginning of a stretch of seven straight conference games.