Kenyon-Wanamingo junior middle hitter Julianna Boyum outplayed St. Peter senior and future Marquette middle hitter Claire Nuessmeier in a 3-0 sweep of the Saints Thursday night in New Prague.  The win gave the Knights another South Subsection title and a berth into the Section title match Saturday night in Mankato.

Scores were 25-19, 25-15, 25-12.  St. Peter ended their season with a 26-5 record and Kenyon-Wanamingo is now 24-8 and will go up against the Belle Plaine Tigers Saturday night for the right to go to the State Tournament next week in St. Paul.  Saturday night's match is scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m. at Mankato East High School.  The match will be broadcast on KDHL Radio, 920 AM. The best way to enjoy the broadcast is to download the FREE KDHL app on your favorite mobile device.

The very first point of the match a message kill was delivered by Boyum when the 5'10 junior used her hops to soar above the 6'2 Nussmeier and execute a textbook kill for a 1-0 lead.  Before the match K-W coaches said slowing down Nussmeier would be a Milo Peterson Ford of Kenyon keys for the Knights , but they held her unofficially to 6 kills and 2 blocks for the match.

Nussmeier had 6 hitting errors also.  Unofficially I had Boyum with 12 kills and one hitting error.  She had 6 blocks.  Junior outside hitter Ally Peterson led the Knights offense with 14 kills unofficially and just 3 errors.

Kenyon-Wanamingo had some other hitters get into the act which makes them an even better team.  5'11 junior Ellie Benson has really played well lately and had 4 kills, 5'9 senior Chelsea Gilster had 4 kills and Benson and Gilster assisted on some of the blocks of Nussmeier and the Saints.  5'10 junior outside hitter Megan Mattson collected 5 kills.

Our Held Bus Service Knights of the match were Boyum, Peterson, setters Madi Luebke and Riley Dummer and senior libero Kasandra Keller who has improved immensely since the first match of the season.

Kenyon-Wanamingo Head Coach Jen Nerison told me after the match her team had their "best performance of the season."  The Knights dominated in every aspect of the match.

Belle Plaine captured the North Subsection Championship with a four set victory over Norwood-Young America Central 25-19, 25-15, 23-25, 25-18.  The Panthers are now 19-7 and were ranked #7 in the final Minnesota Volleyball Coaches Association poll.  Kenyon-Wanamingo was rated #8.

We will have a doubleheader Saturday night on KDHL because the Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Buccaneers came from behind to defeat St. Clair/Loyola in four sets.  The #2 ranked Bucs will play against #3 rated and defending State Champion Mayer Lutheran in the 6:00 p.m. match at Mankato East High School.  Waterville-Elysian-Morristown has lost just two matches this season and one of them was to Mayer-Lutheran.

That occurred the night after a tornado hit the Watterville-Elysian-Morristown area and some of the players homes sustained damage.

At 1:00 p.m. Saturday, if the matches are on time, POWER 96 Radio will broadcast the Medford Tigers match against the Mabel-Canton Cougars.  Mabel-Canton is 30-5 this year and was rated #6 in the final Class A Coaches Poll.

Medford has flown under the radar this season with a 26- 5 record and no ranking.

The Tigers swept their Gopher Conference opponents Bethlehem Academy in Rochester Thursday night 25-19, 25-21, 27-25.  Their losses have been to Simley, Cannon Falls, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, LeSueur-Henderson and St. Louis Park.

Kenyon-Wanamingo Subsection Champs 2018 in New Prague. Photo by Gordy Kosfeld
Kenyon-Wanamingo Subsection Champs 2018 in New Prague. Photo by Gordy Kosfeld
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