Medford Volleyball Sweeps Into Semifinals

The Medford Tigers took 92 minutes to sweep the Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa Jaguars today in their first match of the MSHSL Class A State Tournament.  Scores were 25-22, 25-18, 25-10.

Medford did face deficits in the first two sets but were their usual blue collar selves finishing with a .295 team hitting percentage in the match.  BBE hit .064.  The Tigers defense was eye popping at times with four players with double digit digs.  They simply outlasted the Jaguars for a number of points.  The total digs were 64 for Medford and 49 for Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa.

Both teams had efficient first sets with Medford hitting .371 and BBE .244.  The second set team hitting percentages were .195 for the Tigers and .029 for the Jaguars.  The two sets to none lead seemed to sap the energy out of BBE in the third set.  Medford clubbed at a .333 clip and Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa hit a negative .118 with 3 kills total and 7 hitting errors in the final set.

Senior setter Morgan Langeslag had 5 kills with a .444 hitting percentage, 36 assists, 14 digs.  Junior Kinsey Cronin hit .458 while smacking 15 kills.  Senior Emma Kniefel hit .333 with 12 kills, 12 digs.  Senior Izzy Reuvers had 15 digs to lead the Tigers in that statistic.  Senior libero Kiley Nihart seems to always be in the right spot to help clean things up and keep the engine running for Medford's offense.  Nihart had 12 digs, 2 ace serves and 2 assists.

Medford is the #3 seed in the tournament, was rated #7 in the final Minnesota Volleyball Coaches Association poll and also was #7 in Class A QRF.  The Tigers are now 25-8 and face 30-2 fellow Gopher Conference member Waterville-Elysian-Morristown in the semifinals Friday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

First serve is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.  If on time we will begin our coverage at 2:35 p.m. on KDHL Radio, 920 AM and the FREE KDHL app.

Both teams are assured of playing on the final day of the 2019 high school volleyball season Saturday.  The third place and championship matches will both be on POWER 96 Radio, 95.9 FM and the FREE POWER 96 app.  Third place match starts at 11:00 a.m. and the title match is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.