Mandan tops St. Mary's on Senior Night
Senior Night has not been the easiest night for Mandan to win on the past few seasons.
Not only did the Braves change that on Tuesday evening, taking down St. Mary's in four sets, 25-16, 25-18, 16-25, 25-19, they also ensured neither team would be the host of a West Region play-in game on Thursday.
"I was super proud of our energy, especially from our seniors tonight on Senior Night," Mandan head coach Maureen Larson said. "They put the pieces together and I'm proud of our group."
"Today we started off strong because we wanted to do it for our seniors and I wanted to win because it's my last home game," Lilly Thomsen said. "I think in the third set, we got down a bit, but we turned it around and in the fourth, we fought back."
The night had an extra meaning for the Braves this year, with one of their seniors, Harper Harris, having had season-ending surgery just last week and only just being able to return to the sidelines for the final match of the regular season.
Mandan's five other seniors stepped up in her absence on the floor.
Lilly Thomsen had a game-high 11 kills to go with an assist, 16 digs and two service aces, Ellie Thomsen had three aces, 14 assists, and six digs, Jacee Huber had seven digs, Milla Ehlis had three kills, three digs and 2.5 blocks, and McKenna Johnson had a kill, two digs and 1.5 blocks.
"We have a dynamic team because we are spread out across the board," Larson said. "We're working on trying to get hitters the ball and being aggressive and not tipping unless we have to, we're staying aggressive as much as we can. Lilly is a staple for us, we can get her the ball out of system if we have to, and then she's over 500 digs on her career, so she's done a great job."
Strong service runs were to the benefit of Mandan in all three of their victorious sets along with the strong play from their seniors.
The Braves reeled off runs of 12-3 in set one, 14-3 in set two, and 7-1 in set four to secure victory, and gave St. Mary's serve-receive, usually a solid portion of their defensive unit, fits all night long.
"We talked about communication being a big factor and keeping our focus, especially when we're down," Larson said. "Volleyball is so emotional and we had to keep a positive mindset on our side so we could come back and win."
Mandan's winning run in set one started out of a 13-all tie off a block by Anna Lyles.
Though St. Mary's would close within a point on two separate occasions, the second of which being a kill by Natalie Benning (six kills, one block) off Mandan's block to make it 17-16, the Braves closed on an 8-0 run thanks to three kills from Kennedy Keller, a pair of aces by Lilly Thomsen, a St. Mary's lift violation, a kill by Allyson Holzer and a combo block by Holzer and Ehlis.
"We talked about playing confidently, and the girls did a good job of doing that," Larson said. "We came out with our heads up and playing as hard as we can. We know (Lily Kuennen) and (Mataya Messer) are their top hitters and we wanted to zone in on them with our block and force them to tip."
The closest St. Mary's would get in the second set was a two-two tie four points in, as the Saints completely lost their heads and Mandan simply waved aside any offensive attempts by St. Mary's until the set was too far out of reach for the Saints to recover.
St. Mary's did rally enough to force Mandan into a timeout, but two St. Mary's service errors ended the Saints' hopes of a comeback well short.
"Every point matters to us, we don't take points for granted," Thomsen said. "We fight for every point and we want to earn every single point."
Mandan and St. Mary's traded haymakers to begin the third set, with St. Mary's rallying to an 11-4 lead on a 7-0 run and Mandan responding right back with a 7-0 run of their own to tie the game back up.
A two-touch violation on the Braves gave St. Mary's the lead back, and that dissipated all of Mandan's momentum, allowing the Saints to finish the set on a 14-5 run in which Mandan got stuck in several disadvantageous rotations.
"We got in a rut a bit in the third set, we made our own errors and got stuck in serve-receive and in a rotation for a while," Larson said. "We had to climb out of a hole, but we worked to get back but then got stuck in a rotation and had too many errors."
The fourth set was the closest of the four, and was closest for longest, but a similar late rally to the first set allowed Mandan to pull out of an 18-all tie and close on a 7-1 run.
"The key moments were our serving runs, we had a few and they had a few that got them ahead," Thomsen said. "I think our aggressive serving, even though we had errors, that aggressive serving worked for us, and so did swinging at every ball and not looking back at mistakes."
Mandan's win ensured neither team would host a West Region play-in game on Tuesday. With Mandan, St. Mary's and Williston all entering the final night of regular season play with 6-15 records, and Williston beating Turtle Mountain, the Saints now fall into a road matchup against Jamestown and Mandan will have to travel out to play the Coyotes, who Mandan has gone 2-1 against this season, losing in the conference matches but winning a three-set match against the Coyotes in the Fargo tournament.
"We have a tough match on Thursday, but we'll go in fighting and playing our hearts out," Thomsen said. "If it is our last game, I want to go out swinging and go out strong."
