And what lies ahead is the challenge against New London-Spicer. At stake will be the sub-section title as the teams take to the court at Willmar's Big Red gym. Match time is 7 p.m. Thursday. Might we see some Halloween costumes in the crowd?
ACGC closed out its 2025 season with a 12-13 mark.
The West Central Tribune has "stats not available" for MACA. That is so unfortunate. MACA teams so often play opponents that are in the newspaper's coverage territory. And so often we see the "stats not available" blunt statement. But they do report the details for the ACGC Falcons. So I'll go over these with you. I enjoy following high school athletics - always have.
Kenlie Blom looks like a top player with the Falcons. She sent four serving aces at the Tigers. Avery Bierwerth had one ace. Bierwerth is the setting specialist for ACGC. She performed 30 set assists in the losing effort. Julia Rosenquist had one assist.
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| Kenlie Blom |
In ace blocks it was Johnson at the top of the list with four. Three other Falcons had impact here: Skindelien 3, Klinger 2 and Kelsie Blom 1.
Bierwerth and Kenlie Blom co-led in digs with 21. Then we see Kelsie Blom 19, Rosenquist 15, Sophia Iverson 11, Taylor Frericks 6 and Klinger 6.
The game scores were as follows, MACA numbers first: 25-23, 17-25, 25-20 and 25-18. Now go get 'em on Thursday, Tigers!
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| Berlynn Green |
Sauk Centre 0
The 'Waska Lakers have historically struggled against Sauk Centre. This season brought a most pleasing turnaround. The Lakers downed the Streeters in both regular season matches and prevailed again Tuesday in the sub-section semi-finals. We're talking 6AA. Maybe there's a re-match of MACA and 'Waska lying ahead. What anticipation there would be for that.
Our Tigers are the only team to have pushed 'Waska to a full five-game match! Now the Lakers are focused on the sub-section title match which will have them facing Albany, the #2 seed. Match-time is 7 p.m. Thursday at St. Cloud Apollo.
'Waska volleyball has never before made state. My, look at the Lakers' overall season record now: 27-0! There is no other undefeated team in Minnesota. The Lakers need not look upon Sauk Centre as a nemesis anymore. The Lakers owned the Streeters this season. Fans watched the minimum three games as 'Waska prevailed on Tuesday. The scores: 25-21, 25-22 and 25-20. Sauk Centre was seeded fourth.
Turning to the stats, Brooklyn Noyes and Eliana Marthaler each sent two serve aces over the net. Piper Barsness had one ace serve. Haillie Schulz was at it with her setting specialty as she performed 38 assists. In kills we see Mya VanLuik with special impact as this Laker produced 15. Berlynn Green had eight and she was followed by Avery Lewison 7, Emma Hellermann 6, Taylor Schulz 5, Haillie Schulz 3 and Marthaler 1.
VanLuik got into the zone with her hitting at a key juncture, when 'Waska trailed by three points. Mya put together four consecutive kills to wrest momentum back.
Here are the Lakers who performed ace blocks: Lewison 2, Green 1, H. Schulz 1, Hellermann 1/2 and VanLuik 1/2. Turning to digs we can report Emma Poegel 21, Green 20, Piper Barsness 19, H. Schulz 15, Marthaler 8 and T. Schulz 6.
The Sauk Centre kill leader was Elly Herickhoff with 14. Sauk's top assist producer was Lindyn Anderson with 16. Herickhoff had three ace blocks. Nora Thieschafer led in digs with 19.
Thumbs-up or thumbs-down?
Are people in 'Waska holding their breath over the upcoming school referendum? Well it's in the hands of the 'Waska voters and I don't live there. But I'm always skeptical of school referendums. We all may be seeing considerable inflation again soon. Looks like the "Fed" will lower interest rates again. And look out for the tariffs.
Many Americans will not mind paying more for everything because of the tariffs. Those people support Trump and everything he wants to do. Oh, they'll also support Trump in his harassment of the Federal Reserve board of governors. Whatever Trump wants, his supporters will be clearly behind him from their church pews on Sunday. Whatever he wants.
Get ready for considerably more inflation. Trump just blames it on Biden or the Democrats or both. Well, go ahead and support him if you want. I cannot argue with such devout Christians, I guess. And just look at our congressperson Michelle Fischbach. Totally behind Trump on everything, blaming the Democrats for everything. That's bad.
Such a simple world view. It relaxes the brain I guess.
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| Ella Johnson |
It's great entertainment here in Morris: the UMM Cougar volleyball team! Many of us might overlook it. We have a fresh win to report on. Not only that, this win pushed the Cougars' record over .500 to 11-10. We're 5-4 in the UMAC.
The Cougars disposed of North Central in a sweep. Scores were 25-16, 25-14 and 25-21. This success was in the big city of Minneapolis. It came on Saturday. North Central University is known as the "Rams." There was a fan turnout of 110 at Clark-Danielson gymnasium.
Mary Cate Ziembiec was our leader in kills with eleven. Ella Johnson was tops in aces with five. The blocking department had Ziembic and Braxtyn Meyer co-leading with three. Clara Holden led in assists with ten. And in digs, Lexi Coon had main impact with eleven.
This Friday is Senior Day for the Cougars at UMM. The Oct. 31 matchup will be versus Martin Luther. Match-time is 7 p.m. Here's a "plug" for Cougar volleyball as great entertainment. I have been to three matches and have seen no admission charged.
Hey, isn't October 31 Halloween! Maybe put on a costume for the occasion.
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| (photo by B.W.) |
The volleyball enjoyment might be seen as a nice little "release" to get away from the wave of anxiety. I mean, "Everyone knows something big is coming and it will be bad." That's to quote a quite respected faculty source.
You can't blame UMM employees for watching their backs right now.
Having had the chance to reflect a little more, I'm theorizing: I think the outgoing chancellor might have made the mistake of thinking she could assert UMM's "autonomy" to a degree. There were communications between here and the big bad "main campus." Oh, I was told long ago to never say "main campus." The time for levity is passed.
The Twin Cities campus which is surely the hub has the right to assert itself here to whatever degree it wants. And now it surely looks like the top officials will see that certain things get done or adjusted here. And they won't tolerate any UMM-based official second-guessing anything. So the problems or issues must be serious.
Did Ericksen think she could get by asserting herself for UMM's interests? In one sense, it's laudable, "sticking up for your own." And that might work if the matters at hand were not urgent. And let me add this by way of historical perspective: I think there has always been tension in how UMM ought to relate to the Twin Cities administration. Is our campus to be seen as having a quite distinct identity? To what extent should we pump the "Morris" part of our name? And to what extent should "University of Minnesota" predominate? The recent events suggested strongly that the latter prevails.
The top administration does not even trust us to select our next chancellor! The top administration is saying "don't bother, we'll handle things."
Like it or not, there may be some tough pills to swallow. In the meantime, let's gather at the P.E. Center for more exciting volleyball! I have been to three matches myself. See you there! I'm at an age now where I have to show special care walking down the bleachers at the P.E. Center. Will the bleachers never be open on both sides again? Oh, the memories of big high school tournament games where the whole place was packed or nearly so! Sometimes it overwhelmed me. I'd think "don't the kids who play the games think maybe we're getting a little carried away?"
It's Wednesday so it was "biscuits and gravy" day for breakfast at DeToy's Restaurant in Morris! They also had quite the turkey dinner special for lunch!
- Brian Wiliams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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