Lady Falcons in the Playoffs
By: Chloe Arfsten
This time of the year volleyball teams are finishing up their seasons in the playoffs. The Lady Falcons had a great run at the end and got to the third round in the tournament. They played against Ellsworth first, Westbrook-Walnut Grove second, and Southwest United third.
Monday, October 22nd was the first game in the tournament for the seventh seed Lady Falcons. They faced off against Ellsworth, the number eleven seed, in Jeffers. The match went to five games in a close battle with the scores being 23-25, 25-12, 19-25, 25-20, and 15-12. In the first game, the Falcons led the way until the score was 23-21 and the Panthers came back to win. The Falcons got off to a quick start in the second game and never let down. Ellsworth turned the tables in the third game and started with a 4-0 lead. RRC closed the gap and were within one point, but Ellsworth pulled away again and took the win. As the fourth game started, the Falcons knew they had to win this one or else they would be done. The Falcons scored the first couple of points, but it was somewhat close the entire match. Eventually the Panthers got ahead and finished off the game. In the fifth game, it was the same type of scenario; however, it was Ellsworth with the lead in the beginning until the score was 12-11. At that time, Mikaela Smith went back to serve and gave the Panthers a run for their money and RRC came out with the win. It was an off night for the Falcons, but in the end they pulled out the win and advanced to the next game.
On Friday, October 26, the Falcons moved on to the next round of tournament play in Luverne. RRC played a tough match against the second seed, WWG Chargers, and defeated them. The final tally was 3-1 and the scores were 18-25, 25-15, 26-24, 25-17. All around, the Falcons played well and came out with some great stats. As a team, the Falcons served 94.6%, Tegan Derickson was 23/26 (3 aces) at the line, Katie Larsen 18/19 (3 aces), Brooke Rasmussen 16/16 (1 ace), and Cassandra Erickson 15/16 (2 aces). Larsen (5 blocks) and Erickson both had 10 kills, and Chloe Arfsten and Derickson both had 8 kills. Arfsten had 18 digs, Rasmussen 13, Derickson 11, and Erickson 9. In the first game, the Falcons and Chargers were neck and neck until the Chargers served several in a row and pulled ahead. Eventually, the lead they gained led to them attaining a first game victory. During the second game, the Falcons gave it their all to claim a win for themselves, making it a tie at 1-1. Both teams needed the next win in order to gain momentum, which led to the two teams duking it out at the end. When it came down to it, RRC made the extra effort to reach for those two points in order to win. After that win, the Falcons had all of the momentum in the fourth game and executed well to seal the victory[1] . This meant the Falcons would then be traveling back to Luverne on the upcoming Tuesday for the third round of tournament play.
Section 3A’s third seed, Southwest United, now had a turn to match up against the Falcons. Both teams came to the game well prepared and with much energy; however, when the game started, RRC went flat and let SWU have the first two games. In both the first and second games, the Wildcats began with large leads against the Falcons, but the Falcons never caught up. The flat RRC team everyone saw before came out in the next game with energy and the desire to win. Scoring a few points in the beginning helped change their attitudes and kept the score close throughout the game. It was not until the score was 17-18 that SWU got a run and finished the game off. Even then, RRC still played extremely well and made the Wildcats work for those last points. The final scores were 21-25, 16-25, 18-25.
It was a tough loss for the Lady Falcons as it was their last game of the season. Their record may have not done justice to the girls’ talent, but they had a great season. In the conference their record was 6-4 and 14-13 overall. Coach Arfsten comments, “We are going to miss our five seniors, but we’re looking forward to see what next season will bring.”