MACA girls fall to NL-Spicer, defeat Minnewaska

The MACA volleyball Tigers had a busy start to the week with matches on Monday and Tuesday. Does the current Morris newspaper have coverage of these matches? I doubt it. I don't care enough to take notes on all the local media behavior. I know my own feet would be held to the fire on matters like this. 

I churned out sports coverage for the (old) Morris Sun Tribune when the paper was twice a week. For the large majority of my career, "the Internet" did not exist. 

Today's Morris paper which purports to represent both Morris and Hancock has a website. The website is set up so that it has the potential to do great things. But the owners hold back with it. You all should know that there are many papers that choose to do fairly dynamic things with their sites. Why wouldn't they? 

Not hard to speculate: The Morris paper wants people to continue to "buy" the old dead-tree product. Money. Well I don't care anything about that. So I have my own online resources for reporting on the Tigers. It's a thrill to still be connected to the orange and black. What a perspective I have: last weekend I joined with old familiar faces for my 50-year reunion of the Morris High School Class of 1973! 

So it was 50 years ago we crossed the stage with diplomas. Did the diploma mean we were changed people? As if right on the spot? Well of course not. Society sets up these elaborate ceremonies as a means of selling our public school model for education. Silly rabbit, you are the same person when you wake up on the morning after graduation. Society deals us such a shock: It wants us to feel thrilled on graduation night, but then on the very next day we are completely severed from the relationship with our classmates. From then on it's voluntary. 

All those years of forced/mandated togetherness, and then surprise! It's over. You'd better move on, find ways to fundamentally reorganize your life. I think it can be a cruel forced transition. 

Anyway, I have the perspective of being both a long-ago MHS graduate and a person who today continues to enjoy writing about Tiger athletics, and of course it's "MACA" today, even if the West Central Tribune never gets it right. We're not "Morris/CA," we're MACA. And couldn't be prouder, of course. 

But our current volleyball team is below-.500. What does our local media tell us about the Monday night match? The heading for the kmrs web coverage announces "scores." The coverage does have a wee bit more than just the score or the raw outcome. The Tigers fell to New London-Spicer on the road and kmrs offers us two sentences of details. Better than nothing. The abbreviated coverage gave us three player names. So we're happy to see that Kaylee Harstad had ten kills, Ryla Koehler had 11 assists and Lauren Hottovy had 12 digs. Congrats to these three. 

But the orange and black was on the short end against New London-Spicer, a school that can always be counted on to be strong in girls athletics. Quite the tradition. 

I don't see game scores in the kmrs coverage. All I see is "3-0." So let's turn to the WC Tribune coverage. The coverage tells us that MACA came out of the night with a 4-6 record. Alas, we see "stats not available" for the Tigers. I don't think we are in the Willmar paper's official coverage territory, not like in past times. A little retrenchment in Willmar. I do think that if the Morris coach called in, the stats would be taken and reported. 

We sure do see stat highlights for the NL-S Wildcats. Oh, and the game scores: 25-23, 25-20 and 25-14. The fans in New London were quite approving. NL-Spicer came out of the night at 10-3. It's more of same in Wildcat country. 

Dakota Rich came at the Tigers with three serving aces. She was also the go-to player in setting: 23 assists. In hitting we see Kendra Gerhardson as the leader with 14 kills. Ava Carlson put up 1 1/2 ace blocks. And in digs, Gerharadson set the pace with her eleven. The WC Trib article talked about the "loud student section" at the New London gym. I really don't like that sort of thing.

Victory over 'Waska

Tiger Center was the place for Tuesday night volleyball action. 

The Tigers' match at New London was the night before - might they show some signs of fatigue? Don't ever bet against high school kids having resilience. Oh to be young again. The Tigers summoned a winning effort Tuesday to the delight of home fans. We prevailed over Minnewaska. Not only were the Tigers resilient, they were resilient through a full five-game marathon match. 

'Waska came here with a winning record. The Tigers are trying to get to the .500 plateau. We took a step in the right direction on Tuesday with scores of 21-25, 28-26, 17-25, 25-22 and 15-11. We seemed to get stronger toward the end - an encouraging sign. Obviously the hard-fought Game 2 was pivotal in our favor. Our record at night's end: 5-7. 

The Tuesday story was upbeat in a big way, however the West Central Tribune's online coverage of the match does not have MACA details. There won't be anything in this week's Morris newspaper about this match. Wait 'til mid-week next week to see the details in print? That's too long to wait, unacceptable. 

I was about ready to click on "publish" for this blog post when I noticed that a nice little summary of the 'Waska match was put up on the kmrs site. I was too impatient on this day, but fortunate now to have some nuggets of information. Give credit to kmrs-kkok. Continue reading.

  

Tigers 3, Minnewaska 2

Yes it was a full five games played Tuesday night here. Maybe the correct term is "sets" not "games" but I got in the habit with "games" a long time ago. Go ahead and call me stupid. 

Game 2 was really key for tipping the "mo" in the Tigers' favor. It could have gone either way. We notched the 28-26 win. It all came down to the fifth "game" which we won 15-11. Ryla Koehler performed 41 assists. Nora Boyle complemented that stat with 26. In the crowd-pleasing kills category it was Kaylee Harstad and Brianna Marty each with seven. Morgan Harstad came through with four blocks.

The WC Trib has details on 'Waska but not on MACA. I really think if the Morris coach or someone she designates were to call in, we'd see the details. Something to work on, I guess. 

The WC Trib informs us that three Lakers each had two serving aces: Brooklyn Noyes, Dreya Barsness and Haley Shea. Two Lakers shared the primary setting responsibility: Shea with 31 assists and Haillie Schultz with 22. The hitting work was real share-the-wealth: Avery Fier (16 kills), Dacia Fleury (15), Schultz (13) and Barsness (12). Fier and Barsness each had an ace block. Leaders in digs were Fier 25, Emma Poegel 22 and Barsness 20. 

The WC Trib has "stats not available" for MACA.

 

Addendum: Obviously one can come away with surprises from your 50-year class reunion! It's expected, so in my case I was thrilled to see Paula Fevold for the first time since graduation! I do believe Paula was a starter for the first-ever girls basketball team of Morris High School. Someone would have to confirm that. 

I wonder if the special five individuals could be located and invited back for some type of recognition sometime. Just a thought. The Class of '73 graduated at a time when girls athletics was fledgling. The girls could struggle mastering the fundamentals. Fully understandable. But the story certainly has a happy ending. Look how proficient the girls are today and we take it for granted.

 

Success in tennis

A tip of the hat to MACA tennis and coach Britney House. Sometime I might slip and call her "Britney Greenwaldt." I am getting old as evidenced by having attended my 50th class reunion. Still kind of blows my mind. 

Our first singles tennis player Cate Kehoe beat Brianna Nelson of YME 6-0, 6-4. The Tigers beat YME 6-1. Our second singles player Chloe Zimmel defeated Abigail Jimenez 6-0 and 6-1. YME's Emma Keller was her team's lone victor at No. 3. Emma defeated our Heidi Seales 4-6, 6-3, 10-7. The No. 4 story: Ellen Reed of the Tigers dominating Carley Redepenning 6-0 and 6-0. 

On to doubles. Our No. 1 tandem of Ashley Koehl and Nora Meek thumped Sarana West and Breea Johnson 6-0, 6-0. No. 2 was pretty one-sided also, as Izabell Hoffman and Grace Hauglie beat Reagan Streich and Annelise Jahn, 6-1 and 6-1. Our No. 3 doubles team featured Ava Breuer and Molly Wayne. They took care of business vs. Brooklyn Howe and Kyla Smith, 6-0 and 6-3.

Cross country too!

The weather has stayed most pleasant for outdoor fall sports. So the running Tigers took the trip down I-94 for the meet at Melrose. The venue was Meadowlark Golf Course. There, Hailey Werk took 18th in the Melrose Invitational. Anya Fehr placed 60th. Our boys team had Truett Richards and Ethan Koehler finishing as sort of a tandem in 64th/65th. Close to them was Grady Stallman in 69th.

Addendum #2: What's going on with our country? Do you all care? Cassidy Hutchinson now claims that Rudy Giuliani groped her on Jan. 6. A pretty pregnant question here: How does someone as maniacally crazy as Giuliani with his cognitive and alcohol problems and just plain craziness come to be the lawyer for the president of the United States?

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com