28 serve receptions and 20 digs vs. Holy Angels
All in all, it was a pretty good day for the Tigers in their annual appearance at the Century Invitational tournament held Saturday, October 1, in Rochester.
The Tigers split four matches, finished fifth overall in the 16-team meet and snapped an 11-match losing streak in the process.
The busy day got off to a rocky start in a 7-26, 16-25 loss to eventual champion Jackson County Central, but after that coach Mike Woody's team seemed to find its rhythm.
The locals defeated White Bear Lake 25-17, 25-21 and lost a very competitive 23-25, 24-26 contest to Austin to set up a fifth place match-up with Rochester Lourdes.
The Tigers won the first game of the finale 25-17 and then came up short in an exciting 27-29 game two. They ended the day won a positive note with a hard-earned 15-11 victory in the third and deciding game.
"Realistically we weren't going to beat a very good Jackson County Central team," Woody said, "but we felt very good about our other two pool play matches. We played our best volleyball in along time against White Bear lake and overall we played well against Austin.
We had a very solid win over Lourdes and feel like we can build on some of the changes we have made."
One of the big ones was the move of seventh grader Emma Fahning to the libero position on the left side.
"That seemed to make a big difference in our defense and kept us in a lot more points," Woody said.
Holy Angels 3 Farmington 2
Two days prior to the Rochester trip the Tigers lost a tough five-game Missota Conference verdict at Holy Angels.
The marathon match was a back-and-forth affair with the the Tigers taking the first game 29-27 before losing games two and three 11-25 and 19-25. The visitors rallied to claim the fourth game 25-22 only to drop the abbreviated game five 10-15.
Bekah Lippert and Allie Pierskalla each totaled 13 kills to pace the Tiger offensive attack with Emily Nelson chipping in with 11. Setters Mia Johnston and RuthAnne Schmitt finished with 15 and 12 assists respectively and Nelson chimed in with five service aces.
Rachel Eckert had a busy night on defense, registering team-highs in serve receptions (28) and digs (20). Three other Tigers reached double figures in serve receptions: Adrienne Jolicoeur 20, Nelson 19 and Fahning 12. Fahning added 17 digs and Jolicoeur had 12. Lippert led in blocks with an even dozen.
Tuesday the Tigers travel to Irondale for a non-conference match before returning home Thursday to take on Missota Conference rival Northfield.
