St. Bonifacius, Minn. – The Polars Volleyball team took down Emmaus Bible 3-0 and fell to North Central in three sets.
Early in the first set of game one the Polars fell behind the Eagles 10-7 despite a few offensive fireworks.
Emma Bottelberghe and
Alyssa Heagney showed their offensive talent by combining for 8 kills in the first set. An even set saw the Polars jump out in front late and earn the set victory 25-23 after 9 lead changes.
In the second set a 7-2 run spelled trouble for the Eagles after Emmaus held the Polars lead to one point. With a 14-8 lead the Polars gave up 6 straight points to tie the score at 14-14. A final two runs from Crown saw the Polars earn a 25-19 set win.
The Eagles held the edge for the majority of the third set, but a crucial few kills from
Jocelynn Shockley and
Madilyn Smith propelled Crown to even up the score at 15-15. Shockley and Smith continued to lead the charge as the Polars earned a 3-0 win.
Shockley led the offensive efforts with 10 kills and Bottelberghe added 9 kills of her own.
Alyssa Heagney totaled 2 blocks, Shaelyn McNeil earned 20 assists, and Bottelberghe led defensively, tallying 25 digs.
A few hours later the Polars conference season got underway with a contest against the Rams of North Central University. The first set featured a slight lead by the Rams but was a back and forth start with both teams evening up the score at 9-9, 15-15, 16-16, 18-18, and 20-20. After a service error from the Rams Crown took a two-point lead but fell 26-24.
The second and third sets favored North Central as Crown kept the lead close throughout the contest. The Rams took advantage of the soft touch attacks finding open space all afternoon and it resulted in the Polars falling 3-0.
Bottelberghe and Heagney led the offense with 8 kills each, while Bottelberghe totaled 14 digs leading the defensive effort. McNeill and
Brooke Rummel balanced the assists with 15 and 12.
The Polars fall to 2-1 to start the season and 0-1 in UMAC play. The Crown women return to action next weekend with two scrimmages on Friday, September 6
th against Anoka Ramsey Community College and Free Lutheran Bible College before taking on Faith Baptist and Trinity Bible at home in the Minneapolis Invite.
