The MACA girls of volleyball bounced up to 2-0 with another sweep. They're 6-0 in games this year, 2-0 in matches. Can't beat that. They made their road debut on Thursday (8/31). The Tigers visited the home of the Thunder Hawks, Montevideo.
Once again Jenna Howden was powerful at the net, helping set the tone for this 3-0 triumph. Howden had 15 kills as Morris Area Chokio Alberta disposed of the T-Hawks by these scores: 25-15, 25-19 and 25-13. Jen Solvie added seven kills to the mix. Bailey Marty and Jenna Larson each pounded down five kills. Karly Fehr came through with a kill.
Larsen came at Monte with an ace block. Fehr was dependable as setter, following her usual form: she had 34 assists. In serving, Kenzie Hockel and Fehr each had three aces, and Howden had one. The digs department saw Riley Decker get under the ball 17 times, while Marty had six digs.
Monte's Kari Fragodt gave her team some fuel with six kills. Cali Christianson produced five kills. Sydney Zindie had four ace blocks for the T-Hawks. Kamren Saue had 19 set assists. Sydney Bednar batted two serve aces. Katie Turcios had the team-best total of 15 digs.
Tigers 3, NL-Spicer 0
MACA has four starters back from a team that reached stellar levels. So, we can expect lots of excitement on the volleyball court this fall. Kristi Fehr has the coaching reins. Some new faces are getting involved in the attack, helping create a whole new feeling of cohesion. That cohesion was most evident as the Tigers swept their season opener foe.
It's never a routine assignment to play New London-Spicer. The orange and black squared off against the Wildcats Tuesday (8/29) at home and impressed greatly. We outdid the Wildcats by these scores: 25-9, 25-15 and 25-14. Do you suppose we could parlay this success into basketball? NL-Spicer has been a nemesis. These things can change. As the old saying goes, "they don't win because of the uniforms."
Coach Fehr liked the caliber of her team's play Tuesday. Jenna Howden supplied lots of power in the opener success. Jenna pounded down 17 kills. Jen Solvie and Jenna Larsen each contributed seven kills. Bailey Marty came through with six, then we have Kenzie Hockel (3), Karly Fehr (1) and Islande Sperr (1).
Karly Fehr is back to facilitate the offense with her setting. She came through with a total of 36 assists. Riley Decker complemented her with her five assists.
These three Tigers each had one ace block: Fehr, Howden and Solvie. In digs it was Decker setting the pace with her 19. Marty had 13 digs and Hockel six. On to serving: here it was Howden coming up with four aces to lead. Karly Fehr batted three aces from the serving line. These Tigers each had one: Marty, Hockel and Larsen.
A newspaper report indicated that NL-Spicer came out of Tuesday with an 0-5 record. So the Wildcats apparently had much more early-season action under their belt, and not only that, the .000 win percentage is surprising considering the Wildcats' reputation in girls sports. I'll state again: these things change. Paige Olson had 17 serve aces against the Tigers. Ashton Engelke had five kills and that modest total was good enough to lead. Paige Olson dug up the ball ten times while Hunter Paffrath had nine digs.
Cross country: Morris Invite
A big cross country meet is an exciting spectacle for ushering in the new school year. Fans gathered at our Pomme de Terre course on August 28 to admire the mass of runners.
I was hoping to see the Carrington sisters first to the finish line. They ran well but were outdone by a pair of Lac qui Parle-DB runners. The girls champion was Jordyn Sterud whose time was 20:53. Isabel Schirm was runner-up with her time of 21:15. A West Central Area runner, Lexi Bright, arrived at the finish chute No. 3, timed at 21:24.
Then it was our Maddie Carrington arriving at the chute No. 4 with her time of 21:29. The top five was completed by Carley Kramer, time of 21:31. Meredith Carrington posted a time of 23:18. These were the other orange and black runners: Malory Anderson (24:11), Madelyn Siegel (24:24), Crystal Nohl (25:18) and Kaylie Raths (26:14).
LQPV-DB did not place first as a team despite having the top two runners. Rocori was at the top. Our Tigers placed fourth. Lac qui Parle-DB did take No. 1 in the boys race. Our Tigers faltered a little, finishing eighth. The boys champion was Kaiser Freetly of LQPV-DB, time of 16:58. Jacob Bright of West Central Area was No. 2, clocked at 17:26.
Here was the MACA lineup: Noah Stewart (18:29), Tate Nelson (18:54), Solomon Johnson (19:47), Tyler Reimers (21:05), Judah Malek (23:35) and Micah Aanerud (24:10).
What about football?
The schedule says MACA played at Holdingford last night (Friday) for the opener. I'm not sure a Holdingford-hosted game would get reported in the next day's Willmar paper. That's where I get most info for my sports reviews.
But let's ponder this sport further, underneath all the superficial cheers, band music and the like. It's so festive but it conceals the very concerning issues about the sport. Occasionally a school board member somewhere makes a public comment recommending the end to football. It makes news but such voices still seem isolated. I would love to see a member of our Morris Area school board make a skeptical public comment. That person would be like a hero. Forever.
A news report on August 27 told us that a California high school football player ended up in a medically induced coma after surgery to remove swelling in his brain. Bailey Foley of Fortuna High School was on the sideline late in the season opener at Cardinal Newman when he began to have cramps and then seizures. He was taken to the hospital where doctors discovered bleeding on the brain. Doctors removed a portion of his skull, a common practice when the brain swells.
A linebacker and runningback, Foley took and delivered hits throughout the game, but coach Mike Benbow said the game film does not indicate anything out of the ordinary.
Related: Former NFL center Ed Cunningham has resigned from his role as an ESPN college football analyst due to his concern regarding head injuries within the sport. He said "I take full ownership of my alignment with the sport. I just can no longer be in that cheerleader's spot." He continued: "In its current state, there are some real dangers - broken limbs, wear and tear. But the real crux of this is that I just don't think the game is safe for the brain. To me, it's unacceptable."
Let's hear a Morris Area board member make a public comment sometime.
The MACA sports schedule
The sports schedule was recently distributed with the Morris paper in the form of a slick insert, a single piece of paper that had MACA on one side and Hancock on the other. Did you notice that Hancock had the privilege of being on top? You had to turn it over to see the MACA page. I suspect some people won't bother turning it over. Is Hancock on top as part of the paper's desperation to convince Hancock that they can survive the cancellation of their paper?
How well will this schedule page even be distributed? Until recently it might be distributed with the free Ad-Viser, but the paper has cancelled the Ad-Viser. So, we apparently must acquire the Morris paper. It costs money and it is acquired only by a limited number of people.
The schedule insert is essentially a "sucker ad" where businesses have their names appear on it. Why? Why does money have to change hands just for the sports schedules to be made available to the public? I would remind those businesses of the existence of the Internet. Sports schedule information should exist somewhere online that is easily accessible and free for everyone. Does anyone have a rebuttal to that?
Pheasant Country Sports has pretty reliable schedule pages online. Maybe our school should just consider putting up links to those Pheasant Country schedule pages, n'est-ce pas? If you think it's necessary for money to change hands for people to simply have access to high school sports schedule information, you're still living in the 20th Century. Wake up and smell the coffee.
- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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