Staff photo by Travis Rosenau
Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Kailey Nelson (14) goes up for a block while Sleepy Eye’s Paige Haala (3) tries to tip the ball past for a kill during a Tomahawk-Valley Conference, Tomahawk Division volleyball match at Sleepy Eye High School on Monday night.

SLEEPY EYE — The Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Knights knew it would be tricky leaving Sleepy Eye High School with a win Monday.

The Knights, however, had an ace — or several aces — up their sleeve.

Behind a strong serve and counter-attack, the Knights defeated the crosstown-rival Sleepy Eye Indians 25-20, 20-25, 25-23, 25-17 in a Tomahawk-Valley Conference, Tomahawk Division volleyball match.

Morgan Mathiowetz led the Knights with 16 kills, 28 digs and four aces on 15 serves, while Reese Hoffmann had 16 kills and an ace on 13 serves. Josie Helget added 27 set assists, while Brynne Ibberson had 20 set assists and Natalie Fischer had 14 digs and three aces on 15 serves.

“Sleepy Eye is always a tough team to play, especially on a Monday,” Knights head coach Karri Hoffmann said. “And we knew they would come out playing strong, so we just had the confidence in ourselves that we could do it, too, and the positivity to come out with a win.”

Knights assistant coach George Schwint commended his team’s ability to set the tone with the serve, especially against an athletic, aggressive attack and block from Sleepy Eye.

“I think we starter serving better, we served a little tougher,” he said. “We got the easier return pass and we can run some different offense, we don’t gotta go against a big block … we can mix it up a little bit. I think our serving really helped us.”

Sam Price led the Indians with 13 kills and six digs, while Paige Haala had 10 kills, two blocks and two aces and Ava Kunkel had 25 set assists and two blocks.

The Indians have been playing without their starting setter Hannah Meyer, but Indians head coach Sydney Geiger commended Kunkel’s play in her freshman year. However, Geiger said her team’s serve receive made it tough to get a consistent offense going Monday.

“I talked to the girls about statistical errors, we didn’t have a whole lot of statistical errors compared to what we’ve had in the past, tonight was all serve receive,” Geiger said. “In that last, the fourth set, I think we were up 12-6 at one point and then we got stunned at 12, and that’s what we’re talking about with the consistency piece. And some of it comes down to experience. Half my team hasn’t seen varsity experience until this year. So being able to pick yourself up from that and drive through it and find a way to earn that point is a big step at that varsity level.”

A 7-1 run in the first set saw three kills from Mathiowetz give the Knights an early 12-6 lead. The Indians got a late 3-0 run, but the Knights ended the set on a kill from Mathiowetz, who was the Knights’ big closer on the night as she also ended the third and fourth sets on kills.

The Indians got their block going in the second set, with a big block from Jaelynn Schauman on Mathiowetz starting a 3-0 run that put her team up 11-8. An ace from Fischer tied the set up, but another 3-0 run from Sleepy Eye that featured a kill by Ibberson, an ace by Kunkel and a block from Haala gave Sleepy Eye a 15-12 lead and forced a Knights timeout. The Knights got a late 7-1 run to lead 24-15, getting two kills apiece from Haala and Price and an ace from Kayla Hecht during the run. After a 5-0 Knights run and an Indians timeout, the Indians got a block to end the set and tie the match at 1-all.

The Indians struggled to maintain that energy from the second set to open the third as the Knights opened the third set with a 6-0 lead. It was all St. Mary’s in the set until the Indians came from 10 down to trail 23-22 after a kill from Schauman. A service error put the Knights up 24-22 before the Indians returned the favor by committing an error on their next serve. Mathiowetz then got a kill to put her team up 2-1 in the match.

“This has been our season,” Geiger said. “We’ve dug ourselves into holes and then late in the game is when we start to get into rhythm and get going, but at that point, they’re only 2, 3 points away from finishing the set. So errors have to be limited on our side, so being aggressive, we have to be a little bit smarter on placing the ball. So digging ourselves out of holes constantly, it gets exhausting for the girls.”

Sleepy Eye opened the fourth set with a 12-7 lead after an ace from Nora Coulson, but things got sour in a hurry for the Indians as the Knights broke things open with an 11-0 run to lead 18-12. Geiger did use a timeout in the middle of that run, but nothing was stopping the Knights, who were led that entire run by Mathiowetz’s serving. A violation put an end to that run, but back-to-back kills from Reese Hoffmann quickly put her team up 20-13.

The Knights ended the set with a 3-0 run, with a kill from Mathiowetz, a kill from Helget and a match-ending kill from Mathiowetz.

She didn’t lead her team in any statistical category Monday as she finished with two kills, an ace and a block, but Knights 5-10 middle hitter Amelia Schwartz is one of few senior leaders that has seen ample court time for her team this season.

While the Knights defeated Sleepy Eye 2-0 in a Sleepy Eye High School-hosted tournament on Sept. 7, Schwartz knew this matchup would be different and knew what needed to be done to counter Sleepy Eye’s presence at the net.

“We knew coming into the game that they were in a 5-1, so they had their setter in the front row,” she said. “So we tried to take an advantage to that and use our outside and use that line, which they actually ended up covering really well and then we ended up having to go across and we saw some troubles with that. But in general, really just communication and running stuff that’s new, running a middle-one and getting the middle blocker distracted so that your outside and backside have time to run something is key.”

St. Mary’s (9-4, 3-2) hosts Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther on Tuesday night in a conference crossover matchup, while Sleepy Eye (6-7-1, 1-4) travels to Lester Prairie for a Tomahawk Division matchup Tuesday night.