Larks close season with a win

Published 10:44 pm Monday, October 18, 2010

Grand Meadow's Cortney Olson makes a dig in Monday night's home win against Hope Lutheran in GM. -- Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com

GRAND MEADOW — The Superlarks volleyball team closed out its regular season by doing two things it hasn’t done much this year — pulling out a close game and winning a match.

Grand Meadow (4-17 overall) accomplished both of those feats when it pulled off a five-game win over Hope Lutheran (5-13 overall) by scores of 25-17, 17-25, 23-25, 25-15, 15-13 Monday.

Grand Meadow's Stephanie Russell goes up for a hit against Hope Lutheran's Jenna O’Laughlin in GM Monday. -- Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com

GM led 13-9 early in the fifth game, but the Patriots pulled to within 14-13 when Madison Luford spiked down a point. The last point was volleyed back and forth several times before GM sophomore Autumn Thorson slammed it down for the win.

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“It felt really good, but I couldn’t have done it without the rest of the team,” Thorson said. “I think this will help us a lot (in the playoffs).”

After losing an 18-14 lead in the third game, the Superlarks rebounded well in the fourth game, where they jumped out to a 16-10 lead on a kill by Thorson and never looked back.

“We kind of rebooted and picked each other up,” said Thorson, who had 12 kills and four ace serves. “It worked.”

The Larks won the first game when Stephanie Russell served the last five points — including two aces.

GM head coach Michael Keefe was pleased with how his team reacted to the close game five.

“We get really tense and we make a lot of mental errors in close games late. Hopefully we got over that hump tonight,” he said.

Grand Meadow’s Camille O’Connell tips against the defense of Hope Lutheran’s Madison Lugford in Grand Meadow Monday. -- Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com

GM, which starts three sophomores and has just two seniors, has grown up a lot this year. The Larks started the season with eight straight losses that all were sweeps. Down the stretch, they’ve won three of six and they forced Lanesboro to five games twice.

“We started out pretty weak, but we’re finishing pretty strong,” Thorson said. “Even though we’re not winning a lot, we’re still doing pretty good.”

Keefe has seen the changes throughout the year.

“It’s been fun to watch these girls from week one to where we are now,” he said. “It is amazing to see where they are and how hard they’ve worked in practice.”

GM will likely open Section 1A tournament play next Monday.

GM stats: Autumn Thorson, 11 set assists, 12 kills, 4 aces; Stephanie Russell, 12 set assists, 6 kills, 4 aces; Camille O’Connell, 5 kills, 3 blocks, 4 aces; Hailey Hanken, 2 blocks; Cortney Olson, 11 kills; Ashley Crumb, 16 digs