Photo by Mojo Hill
BISMARCK — After losing the fourth set, the Cardinals found themselves right back where they were on Thursday.
For the second day in a row, their state title hopes came down to a 15-point fifth set.
In Thursday’s quarterfinals, they wrapped it up with a 10-0 start. On Friday, they opened 9-0. They won the fifth set each time.
So Langdon Area/Munich (38-5) lives another day.
“These kids showed a lot of grit,” Cardinals head coach Rich Olson said. “Every girl, up and down the roster, that was on the floor, made plays. And that’s what you need. That’s how you beat a good team at the state tournament.”
It was the Edgeley/Kulm/Montpelier Rebels (27-12) whom the Cardinals outlasted this time at the Bismarck Event Center. LA/M never trailed in the match but still took five sets to punch its ticket to Saturday’s state championship: 26-24, 16-25, 25-11, 21-25, 15-3.
The No. 1-seeded Cardinals are one win away from repeating as champions. It would give them their sixth state championship in team history.
No. 4-seeded E/K/M gave them a tough match from the beginning.
In the first set, neither team had more than a two-point lead until a 6-0 run from the Cardinals that gave them a 14-10 lead. Emma Hall, who was second on the team in kills Thursday, had two aces and a kill to propel LA/M in that stretch.
The Cardinals had to contend with a late momentum surge from the Rebels to squeak out with the first set. Kills by Jazmyn Zaun and Betsy Huber gave E/K/M a 23-21 lead.
LA/M fended off a set point as Haaven volleyed one into the left corner for a kill. Taya Feist ended a point at the net to put the Cardinals ahead, and Mya Swanson finished a 26-24 win with a crosscourt kill.
But after LA/M barely won that set, E/K/M won the second set handily. Runs of 5-0 and 7-0 gave the Rebels a 20-11 lead. The E/K/M student section had “Overrated!” chants going.
The Cardinals lost the set 25-16 to even the match at a set apiece. The Rebels had won more overall points.
But in the third set, the Cardinals flipped the match on its head. As a team, they dug out E/K/M’s hits more relentlessly. They were rewarded with a 5-0 run that gave them a 14-6 lead.
“I just kept saying in the timeouts that we’ve gotta be on the floor. We’ve gotta be diving on the floor. We’ve gotta be making diving digs,” Olson said. “And just match their intensity that way. And I think we did. … It was just really fun to see the girls play with that type of confidence.”
Haaven had a kill to put LA/M up 20-9. Raeleigh Ratzlaff, the lone senior on the roster, had an ace to cap a 25-11 win.
“Every set’s different,” Haaven said. “Don’t bring anything from the other sets into the next one. Just one point at a time.”
The Cardinals were in the driver’s seat, up 2-1 in the match and 6-0 in the fourth set. But like Central McLean on Thursday, E/K/M wouldn’t go away.
The attack of Betsy Huber and Elli Lloyd — who led the Rebels with 15 and 12 kills, respectively — helped E/K/M chip away to tie it. It was 14-14 and 19-19.
Haaven, after running off the court for a dig, got back in time to finish the point with a kill. It put the Cardinals up 20-19, five points from winning the match in four sets.
“That’s just pure instinct, if I’m being honest,” Haaven said. “Getting to the floor, knowing I have to get up and be an option.”
The play exemplified the value Haaven provides.
“She’s an explosive athlete, but plays with control,” Olson said. “Sometimes you have an explosive athlete, and they don’t have that much control. Hilary has both. And so she has the ability to cover a lot of ground and sees the game so well for a freshman. … She’s one of those rare players in my coaching career that doesn’t have a weakness in her game.”
Haaven led the Cardinals with 23 kills and 37 digs on Friday. When things were going well, the squad was digging well as a team. Ratzlaff, the libero, added 35 digs.
“We’ve gotta put the bodies on the floor for those,” Haaven said. “Get every ball up. No ball is dead. Don’t give up on anything.”
Feist, who’s over six feet tall, had a whopping 10 blocks along with nine kills. Her blocking came up particularly big late in the match.
“It’s huge,” Olson said. “Because blocking, a lot of times, the other team goes from, ‘Okay, we’re gonna score right now. This is a big moment. This is a big swing.’ And in an instant, you take it away from them if you stuff-block them. … And Taya, I think, in this tournament, has kind of had a coming-out party, so to speak, as a player. We knew the ability level she had … and she’s just starting to figure things out.”
But the Rebels won the final four points of the fourth set to win 25-21. It forced LA/M to have dig deep in more of a metaphorical sense. The team came together at the sideline in the exact same situation as Thursday: Win 15 points, or your hopes of winning another state title are over.
“[Coach] told us we can do it,” Feist said. “We just have to play how we know we can.”
It was again Swanson’s serving that helped LA/M lock it down. She had an ace to cap the 9-0 opening run. Haaven had kills at different angles on the first two points.
“Mya is a great server,” Haaven said. “And I think that rotation is really, really strong for offense, defense, everything. We just go on runs with that.”
Things spiraled quickly for the Rebels, despite them taking two timeouts. They suddenly looked tight and out of sync.
“Sometimes you just need a break to go your way,” Olson said. “And then you kind of get on a roll, and then the pressure starts to mount for them, and the confidence builds even higher for you. And I think that’s what happened the last couple days in that fifth set.”
The Cardinals cruised to a 15-3 win and could parade back into the locker room with smiles. They’re in the state title game for the second straight year.
“I think people are probably gonna doubt us,” Haaven said. “They kind of have all year, ever since we’ve had girls hurt, losing a bunch. But yeah, I think we can show people what we can do.”
LA/M will face No. 2-seeded Medina-Pingree/Buchanan (27-7) in the state championship Saturday at 3 p.m. M-P/B beat No. 1-ranked Linton/HMB in five sets in the Region 1 title match.
“Really well-coached team. They’ve got a couple of the best hitters in the state,” Olson said. “Their serving is tough. They’re a tough matchup for anybody. … So they’re battle-tested, too. Hopefully we can go out and give them everything they’ve got.”
