Joel Friday, e-PRO

The place: Minnehaha Academy

The time: 1pm 11-7-2009

The teams: Meadow Creek vs Mayer Lutheran

The stakes: Who goes to State?

Minnehaha was rocking with the pep bands from Meadow Creek and Mayer Lutheran switching back and forth. Meadow Creek played after games 1 and 3 and Mayer played game 2 and 4 if necessary.

Game one our Saints started off a little slow but quickly gained an edge in the match. The score was close throughout but our Ladies took game 1 25-22. Great start girls!

Game 2 had Mayer Lutheran scoring the first 6 points. Our girls slowly fought back to even the score at 12. Then Mayer jumped out again. We fought back but Mayer ended up winning game 2 25-19.

Game 3 was another closely fought battle with Mayer looking to take an edge in the match. Both teams were fighting hard for every point. The score was 20-18 when Meadow Creek checked in a player who had been on the bench for 3 weeks with an ankle sprain. She finished out the game serving 5 consecutive points and Meadow Creek had the edge once again!

Game 4 and Mayer Lutheran looked like they weren't going out without a fight. They had some great kills and had the edge. Mayer won the game to force a decisive game 5 winning 25-19. State rides on the final game! The crowd from both teams were ready for a great finish!

Game 5 was close throughout. Each point was critical. The fans were louder than ever. With the saints leading 13-12, Mayer had a kill go out, but wait, the up ref says Meadow Creek touched the ball. 13-13 game 5, what else could you ask for?

Meadow Creek went on to win the last two points even though Mayer had several great spikes, Meadow Creek simply refused to let the ball hit the floor. Once again they fed off the opponents energy to catapult them to victory and to the Minnesota State High School tournament! Unbelievable! They have the hearts of champions and are ready to take on the top teams in the state!

See you at the Xcel Energy Center Thursday! Don't miss it.

Our 8 seniors below!

The first game of the night pitted #1 seed Southwest Christian against #2 seed Mayer Lutheran. Mayer Lutheran won the match 3-0. So now we know who we will face on Saturday if we get by Heritage Christian.

Heritage came out strong and took an early lead in the first 2 games. Our Lady Saints just kept playing at a strong pace and limiting their own errors. The first game was won 25-15 by the Saints who were pounding the ball. In the 2nd game after trailing 6-2, we pulled even at 7 and then the match stayed even to 18 with every point being fought hard for. One last run by Meadow Creek proved too much for Heritage and the Saints won 25-20. 20 points was the most Heritage had managed in 5 games so far this year against our girls.

The final game of the match was amazing. The Saints seemed to feed off the power of Heritage. As Heritage pounded harder, our Saints fought even harder. At one point Heritage had several spikes in a row and should have easily had the point, but we never let the ball hit the ground and made a few statement kills of our own. If they can manage to feed off of the oponents energy like this every game, they will be tough to beat again this year.

The Saints ended up winning 25-18 to maove on to Saturday Section Finals at Minnehaha Academy 1pm. You'll want to be there to see them first hand. One of the Heritage parents said they were the best team they have played all year long. A nice compliment from a team who had only lost 5 games all season.

Well the first 2 games of sections went by without a hitch. The girls quickly took care of Minneapolis Edison in 3 games. Last night West Lutheran came out and looked better than Edison, but we dropped them in 3 as well. Therese was able to use all of her bench in both sets and still maintain an edge over the competition.

Thursday night the sub-section Championship will be held at West Lutheran in Plymouth. Southwest Christian will face Mayer Lutheran at 6 and Our Lady Saints will take on Heritage Christian at 8 pm. SHould be some great volleyball so be sure to come out and cheer on our Saints!

The so called redneck bottleneck will be no more after today! The construction on Highway 10 in Coon Rapids should finish up this week. The project extended the 3rd lane from Foley to Hanson Blvd. with the west bound lane becoming the Hanson exit only lane. On the eastbound side the third lane starts as Hanson traffic enters the freeway. The redneck bottleneck was formed when Highway was completed through Blaine. This allowed 3 lanes from 10, 2 lanes from Highway 47 and one lane from the 610 bridge to combine into 2 lanes in about one mile.

The bridge replacement over the single line railroad track to Duluth extended the construction from March to November. Now that the bridge is done all lanes of the new construction opened east bound today and west bound should follow soon. The usual after work still needs to be completed including striping, landscaping and the cable median.

Here are some picturs of the work zone.

This is the 4th year of the "Battle for the Paddle", this year at Crown College. The winner of this epic battle wins the MCAA conference title in Volleyball, at least that is the way it has worked out. It is actually just the final regular season game and Meadow Creek and Southwest Christian have shown up each year with no losses. Southwest won the first and last battle with Meadow Creek winning the 2nd. Meadow Creek went to state the first year and Southwest went to state last year. Let the battle begin!

The first game SW takes an early lead, something they accomplish in each game of the set. Meadow Creek had brought a bus load of fans down to the game along with their former coach and players of years past. SW being home, had a huge number of students show up for the game. The place was loud! Meadow Creek slowly creepd back into the game and took the lead by 8. Meadow Creek kept pounding the ball and SW kept answering but eventually wore down with Meadow Creek taking the first game 25-18.

In the second game again Meadow Creek had to overcome SW's early lead. This time, this game however set the tone for the match as Meadow Creek blew past them and won decisevly 25-14. The paddle seemed as if it would find its way back to Andover.

The third game was back and forth the whole way. Tied at 19, Meadow Creek called a time out and took the next 2 points. SW used a time out and clawed back to being down one at 23-22. Meadow Creek had two amazing kills to end the game completing the sweep. SW had brought a canoe and the Meadow Creek fans padled it out onto the court. Then they rushed the team and swarmed them on the bench. The paddle is back at the Creek! Way to go Lady Saints!

Both teams joined hands at the net after the game giving thanks to the Lord!

Which team is heading to state? Bring on sections and stay tuned.

Joel Friday