St. Bonifacius, Minn. – The last two years have featured a series of volleyball matches between Crown and North Central that have been decided by the finest of margins. Friday night's installment was no different as the two teams needed five sets to decide things for the fourth straight meeting.
Played in front of the backdrop of Crown's homecoming, as well as the team's senior/parent's night, the two teams played to a full house and for a raucous crowd.
The Rams took the first set 25-16, taking advantage of nine attacking errors by Crown.
The Storm would rebound to win the second set by a 25-20 margin as Crown calmed down and recorded 15 kills, their highest set total for the match.
The second set included a rally that summed up the past two years of matches between the two teams, with ball changing sides of the net 29 times before Crown was able to win the point!
In true see-saw form, North Central took set three, 25-21, recording their best attacking stanza with 15 kills on .239 hitting.
Crown forced the decisive fifth set with a 25-22 win in set four and even the standard 15 points in the final set wouldn't be enough on this night.
The Storm jumped out to a quick 5-2 lead, before a 4-0 run from North Central gave the visitors a slim 6-5 advantage. The scores were briefly tied at eight before a 5-0 run gave the Rams a commanding 13-8 lead.
A kill from
Alayna Kohler broke the momentum and a trio of attacking errors from the Rams helped Crown get back to within a point at 13-12.
The following
Taylor Urcuyo serve drummed up even more controversy when the ball landed almost at the feet of the line judge who jumped back and called the ball out. After the first official called over his assistant and the line judge, the ball was correctly ruled in, tying the score and shifting the momentum firmly behind the home side.
North Central would not give in, however, winning back the serve and a chance to win the match.
A service error tied things back up at 14-14 and
Brittany Gamer won a huge point for the Storm with a perfectly timed dump into the middle. An attacking error by the Rams on the following point gave Crown the 16-14 win in set five and the 3-2 match victory.
It was an evening of outstanding individual performances, with NCU's Elissa Pheneger recording 46 assists and 28 digs, Karlee Huber recording 19 kills, and libero Whitney Reames notching 30 digs.
For the Storm,
Miranda Brueggeman had a huge game, tallying a team best 11 kills and 23 digs. Gamer had 31 assists, while
Kirby Beers and
Katie Hinkle each hit double-digit kills with 10 apiece. Kohler came on late in the match to swing her way to nine kills, with Urcuyo getting 22 digs and
Kelsey Roschen contributing 21 digs and 12 assists.
The two teams were as even statistically as they were on the scoreboard. The Rams narrowly edged Crown 59 kills to 55, 51 assists to 50, and 117 digs to 113, but 10 service aces for the Storm helped bridge that gap.
The 113 digs were a team record, besting the 112 digs the team recorded against North Central in 2012 and Crown's 213 attack attempts were just four shy of the record set against Trinity Bible last season.
It was a fantastic night of volleyball, in front of a lively but positive crowd, and a night in which it was a shame one team had to lose. All the same, the Storm were magnificent, kicking off homecoming weekend with a win that won't be soon forgotten.
