Volleyball: Spikers are proving to be a good matchup

Talk about it

The Rosemount volleyball team struggled last season, and the Irish know much of their inconsistency is tied to being in the Lake Conference.

The Lake is traditionally one of the top conferences in the state in volleyball, and there is rarely an easy match for Rosemount.

This year, five of the top 10 ranked teams reside in the Lake Conference.

However, something is different with the Irish this season, and they are looking forward to showing that in the Lake Conference.

Rosemount beat Chanhassen, 25-21, 25-23, and 27-25 on Tuesday to earn its first conference win of the season.

The victory was the Irish’s third in four contests.

“Right now we are playing well and winning the games we should win,” Rosemount coach Kristin Helgeson said. “No one we’ve played so far, I would say, we couldn’t have beaten. We can beat a Lakeville North, but if we are going to do it, everyone needs to be on. Before, I would have said it wasn’t really a winnable match. Now those are winnable matches.

“Against Chanhassen, we just played fantastic.”

The Irish lost 25-15, 25-18, and 25-12 to Lakeville North last week.

“Defensively we did not play well,” Helgeson said. “So, we could barely get our offense going. They were good. Their setter was very good. We had a hard time reading their setter and figuring her out.”

Mikaela Sullivan passed out 13 assists against Lakeville North and Paige Petersen led the team with nine kills.

Jordan Hinkle had 10 digs.

But the victory against Chanhassen might have shown Helgeson how far the Irish have come.

Perennial power Chaska split its high school this year, and with the depth of talent to spread around, Chanhassen likely won’t be like most first-year schools.

“They were talented,” Helgeson said. “They were a strong team, even with the split. You kind of expect that with the depth of Chaska volleyball.

“Any time you can get a conference win in volleyball, it’s huge. We were really intense and played great defense in the front and back, blocking and digging. That’s what we need to do.”

Jaclyn D’Amico had six kills and eight digs in what the coaches called her best match.

Petersen came through with 13 kills and 16 digs, both team highs.

Elaine Warner and Natalie Busher each had seven kills. Warner added three blocks, while Busher blocked two balls.

Sullivan finished with 23 assists and eight digs.

Hinkle dug 15 balls and received 21 serves.

“We had such great defense we were able to run our offense,” Helgeson said. “Their hitters couldn’t get going because of our block. Our blockers were unstoppable. It was nice.

“And everyone is contributing. Paige is going to lead us in kills, obviously. But everyone else is involved and the offense is pretty divided. They can’t key on Paige when everyone else is pulling their weight. It really gives us a balanced attack.”

Tags: sports, volleyball