MANKATO — What could’ve been a trap game turned into a night where Mankato West volleyball completed a three-set sweep.
With a crosstown rivalry road match against Mankato East slated for Thursday, the Scarlets earned a three-set triumph over Austin. West won 25-19, 25-21, 25-13 on its home floor over the Packers.
“Tonight we really worked on and executed finishing the game versus just kind of letting them in and taking them out,” Scarlets head coach Stacy Jackson said. “We’ll continue to work on that. But I was really impressed with the grit tonight.”
With a 2-0 match lead in hand West (5-6) began to pull away at the service line, claiming a 10-3 lead in the stanza before the Packers called timeout. The Packers pulled within six points at 17-11, but West claimed eight of the frame’s final 10 points to secure the sweep.
“We just needed to slow down a little bit,” Jackson said. “Just go back to basics.”
It was a match where West nearly let the Packers take control on multiple occasions.
In set one the Scarlets raced to a 20-10 lead. In what felt like a blink of an eye the lead was narrowed to 23-19 to the dismay of the West faithful, yet to the delight of fans of “Monsters Inc.” Junior Maleah Grunst connected on back-to-back swings for a pair of kills and a 25-19 set win.
In set two the Scarlets tied the frame on four different occasions before evening everything up at 13. They took the lead, turning a 13-9 deficit into a 17-13 lead off a furious eight-point run.
West kept its four-point advantage with another 23-19 lead which would make Mike Wazowski cower in fear. Austin clawed within two points, but another kill from Grunst created a set-point opportunity. The Packers rebuttal sailed out of bounds for a 25-21 lead.
“If you let them in, they will come in. And they beat a lot of good teams,” Jackson said. “We knew we had to kind of stay on top of it. And you can see when we let them in, they came in.”
Grunst finished with 14 kills and 13 digs on a night where the Scarlets front line made its presence felt.
“It’s super fun to see,” Jackson said. “I think they all kind of stepped up, and (setter) Courtney (O’Connor) did a good job mixing up the hitters to confuse the defense and splitting up that block.”
Yet, Grunst wasn’t the top performer for West on Tuesday at the front of the net. That went to Alex Barten, who finished with a team-best 15 kills while chipping in with 11 digs.
And for her 11th game of her freshman season, it’s fair to say she’s beginning to find her groove in the rotation after serving as a bench player last season.
“She’s really stepped up in a big way,” Jackson said of Barten. “She is younger, but I think it helps to have those older girls around her to kind of like rein her back in if she’s struggling. But she’s been doing a great job.”
Grace Robbins added five kills and a dig. Brianna Becker added 12 digs.
Now West makes the short venture up the hill to collide with East on Thursday. It’s a matchup West has won in straight sets the last four seasons.
Yet, the Scarlets aren’t taking anything lightly.
“East West is always fun. And I think this year, in my opinion, we’re very evenly matched,” Jackson said. “It’s going to take getting those nerves out initially, and then whoever can get back to their game first is going to be successful. So that’s what we’re going to work on in practice (on Wednesday).”
East and West play at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at East.