In the first round of the Section 8AAA volleyball playoffs Wednesday on the road, the Becker Bulldogs lost to the Detroit Lakes Lakers in four sets (3-1) to end their season.
Becker came into the playoffs seeded #9 while the Lakers were seeded #8. The teams seemed evenly matched and the sets were tight and kept the fans on the edges of their seats.
“We were neck-and-neck all throughout the games,” said Head Coach Kristina Sloan. “They’d be up by two points and then we’d be up two points. Ultimately they pulled ahead when we got into a couple rotations.”
Detroit Lakes had two outside hitters that really worked Becker’s defense hard.
“When the block wasn’t closed, they’d hit the 10-foot line and when our middles closed the block, they’d just hit deep over our block,” said a frustrated Sloan. “We learned to just play deeper and focus on that outside hitter.”
Sloan said it took the first game to get her team into the game defensively, but games two, three and four her players were reading the hitters. Becker began playing the ball up for their offense to swing hard at them.
“It was fun to see all the things we worked on all season to come together and simply play a great game of volleyball,” Sloan said.
Brynn Barthel notched 10 kills, four blocked shots, six digs and had one ace on 14-16 serves.
Hope Amundson finished with 10 kills while Jessica Gruber had seven kills and two blocks. Sarah Garding and Payton Anderson each had four kills. Anderson also tallied three blocked shots.
Brinley Zoller collected 21 assists and three aces on 17-10 serving. Daisy Kent had 13 assists, seven digs and was 13-13 in serves.
Carly Baumgartner was 12-14 in serves with two aces and had 17 digs. Leah Anderson finished with four digs.
