MACA volleyball has been hitting on all cylinders thus far in the still-young 2015 season. MACA not only won twice last week, they did so by sweep both times. The roster is blessed with inspired talent.
The Tuesday (9/8) story was a 3-0 win over the Braves of Benson, at Benson. Scores were 25-14, 25-19 and 25-14. Karly Fehr was in her usual role as setting master, and on this night she produced 23 set assists. Moira McNally had one set assist. Brooke Gillespie came through with three serving aces, and Lindsey Dierks had two. Jenna Howden executed two ace blocks followed by Gilliespie and Carly Maanum each with one.
Riley Decker was the whiz when it came to digs - she had 16. Lindsey Dierks had eight digs, Gillespie had seven and Maanum six.
Let's conclude this stat report with hitting. Here the Tigers unleashed a balanced attack -a key ingredient in their dominance. Here's the rundown in kills: Dierks 7, Ashley Solvie 6, Gillespie 5, Howden 3, Fehr 2, Maanum 1 and McNally 1.
Sophie Ascheman led Benson in kills with six. Megan Amundson and Ascheman each had two serving aces for the Braves. Addie Forbord produced 12 set assists. Victoria Pagel had two ace blocks for the host team. Megan Amundson had nine digs.
Karly Fehr was the set assist machine with 29. Brooke Gillespie came at the Falcons with three serving aces. Carly Maanum and Riley Decker each had two serving aces, and Koral Paulson had one. Gillespie went up to execute two blocking aces. These Tigers each had one ace block: Fehr, Ashley Solvie, Haley Erdahl and Moira McNally. In digs it was Decker setting the pace with 13 followed by Gillespie with 12, Fehr with eight and Lindsey Dierks with seven.
Gillespie was at the fore in hitting with eight kills. Jenna Howden batted seven kills. Dierks and Solvie each had five while Fehr and Maanum each had four. Erdahl and McNally each had two kills, and Nicole Solvie produced one.
The top kill producers for the host Falcons were Kendra Miller and Taryn Reinke each with four. Miller topped the Falcons in blocks with four. Maree Lee was busy as setter for the host, picking up 18 set assists.
The Tigers entered the new week with a 4-0 record and building hopes for a sterling season.
Football: Minnewaska Area 29, Tigers 20
The MACA gridders were dealt their first loss of the season Friday (9/11).
We struck with a very exciting play on defense: Toby Sayles intercepted a pass and was off to the races with a 71-yard return for six. Our 6-0 lead was not an indication of how the game would turn out. Host Minnewaska Area was the 29-20 victor in this Mid-State contest. Both teams came out of this game at 3-1.
The first quarter ended with the score 6-0. But 'Waska answered with nine points in the second quarter. Chris Clausen kicked a 31-yard field goal. Michael Gruber threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Justin Amundson. MACA blocked the PAT kick try. The Lakers kept flexing their muscles as Gruber connected with Austin VerSteeg for a 45-yard scoring aerial. Clausen kicked the PAT.
The Tigers fought back with a two-yard scoring run that had Ryan Dietz clutching the football. Trent Marty ran for two on the conversion. The Lakers struck with a one-yard TD run that had Greg Helander carrying the football. Clausen kicked the point-after.
The back-and-forth game continued with a 12-yard scoring run by Jacob Zosel of the Tigers. The evening's final score was by Minnewaska Area: Ryan Christianson found the end zone on a run from the nine. 'Waska could savor its winning margin of nine points.
Zosel received 15 handoffs and charged forward for 86 rushing yards. Ryan Dietz carried the football eleven times for 49 yards. Conner Koebernick had five rushing yards and Chase Metzger one. I was chatting with a friend at McDonald's recently and mentioned that I remembered covering Conner's older brother. The friend clarified, saying that I was remembering covering Conner's father. Time marches on.
Trent Marty completed eight of 16 pass attempts against the Lakers. His aerials picked up 76 yards and he had no interceptions. The receivers were Eric Staebler (two catches, 38 yards), Sean Amundson (2-19), Metzger (3-14) and Zosel (1-5). Remember Roger Metzger, shortstop for the Houston Astros in the '70s?
Staebler handled the punting. Sayles had two interceptions and Metzger had one. The tackle chart showed Metzger with six solo tackles and two assists. The list continues with Brady Jergenson (5-4), Cole Watzke (3-4), Taylor Staples (3-4) and Ryan Dietz (1-7). Watzke sacked the quarterback three times. Staples had one quarterback sack.
Minnewaska had two major ballcarriers: Ryan Christianson (12 carries, 109 yards) and Greg Helander (19-86). Gruber has a major factor with his passing arm: nine completions in 16 attempts for 256 yards, but he did have three interceptions. VerSteeg was a favorite target of Gruber's, as he gathered in five passes for 135 yards. Amundson had three catches for 85 yards, and Matt McIver rounded out the list with one catch.
Viva Morris Area Chokio Alberta fall athletics!
What's going on with newspaper?
I
took a glance at the Morris newspaper when at church a couple weeks
ago. Something jumped out at me. To those of you who still look at the
paper: did you notice it too? The obituaries were boxed and the type
size looked smaller. The type size looked smaller! This at a time when
everyone knows the audience for newspapers is aging. More of us are
having to turn to reading glasses every day.
Don't we all
assume the paper is getting paid the same for running these obits, as
when the type was larger and more user-friendly? When I was at the
Morris paper, we didn't even charge for running obituaries.
I
think it is ethically questionable for papers to charge for publishing
obits. The papers would say, well, everyone knows newspapers are having
tough sledding now because of the Internet. How is that the problem of
the families of deceased community members? No one is obligated to
"subsidize" the newspapers. The way the system works now, as I
understand it, is that the funeral home takes complete responsibility
for writing the obits, and then collects payment from the families which
then gets transferred to the paper. I suppose they all feel it would be
"tacky" for the families to be forced to go to the newspaper office to
pay. The system removes some of the unseemliness.
I have been
arguing that the funeral home should actually charge the newspaper for
the service of writing the obit. The funeral home does all the work. The
paper is relieved of even paying an obituary writer.
The new
system has developed with funeral costs getting sky-high. I imagine
that funeral homes are under pressure to keep prices down. I have
suggested before that funeral homes should affix a copyright notice to
the obits they post on their websites, and then they could tell the
paper not to publish them unless paying a fee. That would be a
fascinating experiment.
A steadily growing percentage of
people are just going online to read the obits anyway. Also, the obit
gets published on the funeral program. Also, we're living in an age when
more and more people simply value privacy. Is a death in the family
really "community news" at all? Might it be seen as a private family
tragedy? Friends and relatives can be informed promptly. Beyond that,
I'm not sure it's the public's business. What do you think?
For
the time being, I think we can all look down on the newspaper's
practice of reducing the type size for obits, as a simple ploy to just
try to keep raking in the same amount of money for a reduced service.
It's
the same principle as what we're seeing Thrifty White Drug doing in the
community: phasing out their two vibrant downtown stores in order to
move to the outskirts in a drastically scaled-down facility. Money. It's
all about money.
- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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