HAYFIELD – It was a great weekend for the student-athletes at Hayfield High School.

Monday, September 13, 1999

HAYFIELD – It was a great weekend for the student-athletes at Hayfield High School.

On Friday, both the boys and girls cross country teams won at the Blooming Prairie Invite, the football team defeated Zumbrota-Mazeppa 39-6, and the evening was capped off with a dance. The volleyball team had to get home early from the dance, however, because they were competing in the Hayfield Lions Fall Classic Volleyball Tournament on Saturday. They must have got plenty of rest as they captured the title losing only one game in five matches.

The Vikings played in a brand new gym, so spanking new in fact that there are no bleachers yet installed, along with NRHEG, the Lyle/Pacelli junior varsity, and Lewiston-Altura during the morning pool play session. In the old gym it was Blooming Prairie, LeRoy-Ostrander, Rochester Lourdes, and Goodhue. Pool play consisted of a round-robin competition of two game matches. A team scored one point for each game won and a point for the most points won in the match.

Hayfield won the Gold Pool and Blooming Prairie the Blue Pool. NRHEG finished second in the gold.

The final spot in the semifinals came down to the match between Goodhue and LeRoy-Ostrander in the last match of the Blue Pool. Each team entered the contest with four points. Goodhue pretty much took the dramatics out of the match early, racing out to a 15-2 win in the first game.

The Cardinals regrouped for game two. They scored three points on Jenny Linderman’s serve and then after a kill from Lindsay Mensink for a sideout, they scored two more points on Mensink’s serve to go up 5-0. Goodhue then scored a point to make it 5-1. The Cardinals now had no margin for error as they needed to win 15-2 to get a tie for second. They scored another point on an ace block from Nina Bucknell to make it 6-1, but their hopes to make it the semifinals were dashed when Joanna Quast smashed home a kill to score Goodhue’s third point of the game. LeRoy-Ostrander went on to win the game 15-9.

"We had a sporadic morning of play," LeRoy-Ostrander coach Amy Maixner said. "We either played well the first game and then had trouble in the second or after playing badly in game one, playing well in game two. We had some trouble passing but played well at the net all morning."

In the Gold Pool Lyle/Pacelli co-coaches Carl Ellis and Norm Blaser brought over a JV team that included three B-Squad players to gain some experience against tough competition. The team lost their first two matches before posting a two-game sweep of Lewiston-Altura.

"We played real well in the last match," Ellis said. "The team finally started to mix together in that match. The B-squaders played well. Cassie Fuller is going to be a great hitter, Chrissy Kluczny is and will be a good setter for us, and Michelle Mino also played well."

In the semifinals Hayfield and Blooming Prairie made quick work of their opponents setting up an exciting match of big hitters for the championship.

It looked like the Blossoms would romp through the first game when they scored the first six points. But then Blooming Prairie coach Mary Worke had to take out 6-foot senior middle hitter Ranell Goette. Goette was not feeling well after a long day of competition. The tied tuned and Hayfield scored the next 10 points of the contest. The Blossoms then closed the gap, getting the score to 10-11, but Hayfield scored the next three points to make it 14-10. The Blossoms scored the next two points to make it 14-12, but after a couple of sideouts Hayfield scored the final point of the game on Kellie Krueger’s serve when the Blossoms hit a ball just wide.

"When Ranell came out of the game we lost our focus a little," Worke said. "The girls were worried but Megan (Ingvalson) did a great job when she was in."

They got their focus back in game two whipping through it. They took a commanding 11-3 lead when the scored three straight points on Kari Olson’s serve. Jana Peterson had big kill and Olson smacked an ace serve. The Blossoms went on to win the game 15-7.

The tide turned in game three with the Vikings going up 9-0 behind the digging of Krueger and the outside hitting of Kristin Peterson. For the day, Krueger had 52 digs, 23 in the championship. Peterson had 10 kills in the contest and 32 for the tournament. The Vikings went on to win the game 15-3. Also playing big for the Vikings during the tournament were Jana Wohlers, going 48-of-48 on her serve with 28 service points. She also had 52 set assists. Sheri Swanson had 28 kills and eight ace blocks.

The Vikings now have won the Lions tournament in the last four odd number years, 1993, 95, 97, and 99.

"Those results were a good motivator for the team, saying ‘come on you guys’," Hayfield coach Deb Harvey said. "We had a slow start this morning. It was nice to finish the day strong. We then showed our grit coming from behind in the first game against Blooming Prairie."

The Vikings perfect 8-0 record will be tested this week on the road when they travel to Kasson-Mantorville on Tuesday and then hook up with volleyball powerhouse Stewartville on Thursday.

Hayfield Lions Fall Classic

Volleyball Tournament

Pool Play Results

Blue

Goodhue def. Blooming Prairie, 15-10, 12-15*

LeRoy-Ostrander def. Rochester Lourdes, 15-3, 15-12

Goodhue def. Rochester Lourdes, 15-11, 6-15*

Blooming Prairie def. LeRoy-Ostrander, 14-16, 15-3*

Blooming Prairie def. Rochester Lourdes, 15-1, 15-7

Goodhue def. LeRoy-Ostrander, 15-2, 9-15*

Gold

Hayfield def. Lyle/Pacelli JV, 15-8, 15-8

NRHEG def. Lewiston-Altura, 15-1, 15-11

Hayfield def. Lewiston-Altura, 15-1, 15-3

NRHEG def. Lyle/Pacelli JV, 15-10, 15-6

Hayfield def. NRHEG, 15-12, 15-8

Lyle/Pacelli JV def. Lewiston-Altura, 15-11, 15-7.

* (total points)

Semifinals

Hayfield def. Goodhue 15-9, 15-9

Blooming Prairie def. NRHEG 15-7, 15-3

Third Place

NRHEG def. Goodhue 17-15, 15-10

Championship

Hayfield def. Blooming Prairie 15-12, 7-15, 15-3