MANKATO — Mankato West’s aggressive work on the defensive side of the net sparked a bevy of runs as the Scarlets downed Austin 25-21, 25-12, 25-19 in a Big Nine Conference volleyball match Thursday at the West gym.
“They had a huge middle so we had to get the ball pushed outside a little more,” West coach Stacy Jackson said. “We had to make sure to go outside the block and not keep hitting into the middle. Our defense is what keeps us in matches because we’re not very big. Valencia (Carrera) is always moving and letting our hitters know where to hit the ball. Our outsides to a good job of picking things up, too. … Everybody does their part on the floor.”
Leading 11-10 in the first set, sophomore setter Courtney O’Connor’ five-point service run — sparked by kills from sophomore outside hitter Maleah Grunst and senior right-side hitter Aubrey Doyscher — helped the Scarlets gain a 17-11 advantage. After the Packers (9-9) tied things at 19, senior middle hitter Addi Kuiper’s kills set up senior outside hitter Ella Olson’s four-point service run in front of Grunst’s game-ending spike.
“We’ve been working hard in practice on communication and letting the hitters know what is open,” said Grunst, who ended up with 10 kills. “Our setters having been working hard on our connections so I just listened to them. We’re not exactly the tallest team so we have to count on our defense to be able to set up our offense.”
West (9-4, 6-1 in Big Nine) looked a bit sluggish to begin Game 2 before O’Connor’s ace hit fueled a seven-point service run from senior defensive specialist Malia Allex, which produced an 11-6 lead on back-to-back bullets from Olson. O’Connor, who finished with 29 assists, then came up with consecutive blocks to trigger a 7-0 surge to expand the margin to 20-8. Carrera, who totaled a team-best 19 digs, collected a handful of service points in the run.
“We’ve been working on our consistency and when our passing is good, we have a lot of options,” O’Connor said. “Our hitters did a nice job of hitting off their blocks or going around it. We were able to see the blocks and then go around them.”
West overcame an early 6-2 deficit in Set 3 to gain a 25-19 victory. Olson, who paced the Scarlets with 11 kills and 14 digs, and Doyscher each recorded a five-point run at the service stripe. Kuiper, Doyscher and junior middle hitter Lydia Banse banged five kills apiece for the winners, who also received a trio of assists from senior Jordyn Vihstadt at the end of Set 2.
“We tried to find the open spots on the court and they were leaving the line open for Maleah,” Olson said. “We worked on working our slides so the middles could find open spots, too. We were really head-strong on our serves and finding good spots so we could be ready defensively. … We’re a really scrappy team on defense and we can also move the ball around to find holes in the blocks.”
Junior middle hitter Isabella Bolster recorded nine blocks for the Packers, while sophomore outside hitter Quinn Osgood blasted a team-best 11 kills.
West plays Saturday at the Rochester Century Tournament.