Owatonna Volleyball Will Open the Playoffs at Farmington
Once again a South Suburban Conference team looms on the playoff horizon for an Owatonna High School sports team. OHS volleyball will open the Section 1AAA playoffs at Farmington Wednesday, October 23 at 7 pm. The match will be heard on AM 1390 KRFO and the KRFO app. The Huskies are the tenth seed. The Tigers are seeded seventh.
Owatonna's soccer teams were each eliminated by Lakeville South from the South Suburban Conference in their recent playoffs. The Cougars went on to win the section title in the boys' and girls' tournaments to advance to state.
Farmington volleyball (11-16) beat Owatonna (5-23) in three straight sets on September 3. The Tigers played numerous Big Nine teams this season, beating Faribault twice and Red Wing once and losing to Northfield, Rochester Century, Rochester Mayo, and Winona. The only other SSC team the Huskies played was Eastview, who beat OHS to open the season August 27.
While the Huskies struggled against a couple of top-notch teams last week with Bethlehem Academy and John Marshall to close the regular season, coach Jason Kaytor has seen some good advances, "We are coming close. We're so close. We're coming into sections time and I think that's a good time to be getting a lot better."
The winner of Wednesday's match will face No. 2 seed Lakeville North (20-8) Friday, October 25. Northfield (27-1) earned the top seed and will play the winner of Wednesday's Faribault (13-13) at Century (13-14) match on Friday in Northfield.
Albert Lea (0-16) opens at Lakeville South (15-13) Wednesday with the winner going to No. 4 seed Mayo (18-9) Friday night. Austin (11-15) plays at Winona (15-12) Wednesday with the winner tangling with John Marshall (20-6) Friday in Rochester.
Lakeville South won the section title last year. Rochester Mayo is the last Big Nine team to win the section, taking the title in 2015. Northfield has never advanced to the state tournament in volleyball.