Volleyball: Minnewaska defeats Osakis in Section 6-2A playoff game – Alexandria Echo Press

GLENWOOD – The Osakis volleyball team had an advantage against the seventh-seeded Minnewaska Lakers in the first round of the Section 6-2A tournament on Wednesday. Osakis, the No. 10 seed, won the first set 25-20 to take a 1-0 lead over Minnewaska.

But Minnewaska won the next three sets, winning the Oct. 23, 2024 match 3-1 and advancing deeper into the Section 6-2A tournament.

“[Starting in the second set] “We decided to eliminate our mistakes and take control of what points we gave them and we played our game and played more relaxed,” Minnewaska head coach Mitch McGuire said. “The girls were tense.” They were afraid of making a mistake in hosting the first round of a playoff game. We haven’t played a playoff game since 1993, so the pressure was on. We just reminded them that you all get to play volleyball today, so you should go out and have fun. And if you make a mistake, it’s okay.’”

Set one went back and forth, but in the end Osakis pulled away and the score was 25:20.

“We had a lot of blocking touches,” said Osakis head coach Brittney Kohorst. “We worked hard to get a lot of touches and blocks.”

Minnewaska came out strong in the second set and led by a large margin early on. Osakis cut the deficit to a few points, but Minnewaska won the set 25-13 and tied the game at 1-1.

The Lakers led for most of the third set, but the Silverstreaks held tight and eventually tied the game at 22. The Lakers scored the last three of four points, won the set 25:23 and took a 2-1 lead into the fourth set.

“That was huge because at that point the game could have gone either way,” McGuire said. “We changed some plays, which made our offense a little quicker.”

From there, Minnewaska maintained the momentum, winning the fourth set 25-8 and winning the game 3-1.

Haillie Schulz, a sophomore from Minnewaska, surpassed 1,000 career assists on Wednesday. Schulz finished the game with a double-double with 29 assists and 16 digs.

Senior Dacia Fleury was the only Laker with double-digit kills with 17 kills.

“They (Schulz and Fleury) get along really well,” McGuire said. “They are good friends off the field too. I think that contributes to their chemistry on the field.”

McGuire is in his first season as Minnewaska’s head coach.

McGuire was formerly the head coach at Osakis. He was head coach at Osakis for three seasons before becoming head coach at Alexandria Technical and Community College, where he remained for two seasons.

Thursday’s game was McGuire’s first game against the high school program where he previously coached

“It was fun to see that they still had some of the skills that I taught them,” McGuire said of competing against his old team. “Some of our players said, ‘Oh my God, did you see that?’ And I thought, “Yeah, where have you seen this before?” We work on it every day in practice. “It was great to see some of the seniors I had coached. It was a lot of fun to be there.

With Wednesday’s loss, Osakis ends the 2024 season with a record of 10-17. Wednesday’s loss spelled the end of the season for nine Osaki seniors.

“The season was a little up and down, and I think that’s to be expected at times, but the girls bounced back,” Kohorst said. “We had a really strong finish to our season. Our seniors were our backbone. They were our leaders on and off the field playing the role of being the big sister to the younger classes.

With just over half of his roster expected to be back next season, Osakis is excited about the future.

Minnewaska (18-9) advances to the Sauk Center (22-4) in a Section 6-2A quarterfinal game on Friday at 7 p.m. Sauk Center is the No. 2 seed in the section and had an opening-round bye at the start of the postseason.

Minnewaska and Sauk Center met twice during the regular season and Sauk Center won both battles. Sauk Center defeated Minnewaska 3-2 on September 3rd and 3-0 on October 1st.

“We have to make sure we are mentally prepared,” McGuire said. “We moved some defenses around, we moved some plays around to make the front row and back row guys look different.”

The winner of the Minnewaska vs. Sauk Center game will face either No. 3 seed Royalton (21-6) or No. 11 seed Holdingford (14-13) at Sauk Rapids-Rice on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m ). High school in the Section 6-2A semifinals.

The Section 6-2A championship will be held at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School on Oct. 31 at 7 p.m.