Viqueens make it back to regional final with victory over Griswold
GRISWOLD — The Stanton Viqueens are one win away from making a fifth straight state volleyball tournament appearance.
Stanton reached the regional final after winning 3-1 in a close and hotly-contested semifinal Friday night against the Tigers in a jam-packed Griswold High School gymnasium.
The only loss for Stanton in the match came in game one. Both teams matched each other point-for-point during the match.
“This group of girls, they’re pretty unflappable,” Stanton volleyball coach Jody Druivenga said. “They just play because at the end of the day, what other option do you have, you just play.”
Stanton had a 9-6 lead early, thanks to points by Haley Weis, Chelsea Weis, Ally Focht and Devin Druivenga.
Griswold rallied to score four straight points and make it 10-9. The Tigers tried to jump out to a lead, but Stanton fought back and kept close.
The Viqueens never re-gained the lead, despite tying the game twice. Griswold took game one 25-22.
The Tigers used the game one win to jump out to an early lead, scoring seven of the first nine points in game two.
Stanton clawed back, starting with a Chelsea Weis kill, to score six straight points and take a 9-7 lead.
The Viqueens used the rally to increase their lead, at one point getting up 18-11.
Griswold quickly closed the gap, getting the lead down to 19-17.
Stanton stayed ahead and to 22-18 thanks to a Focht kill to the back row, forcing Griswold to call a time out.
Griswold got a point after the time out courtesy of a Sydney McLaren kill.
Stanton managed one more point as the Tigers scored four straight, capped off by a McLaren kill, to tie the game at 23-23.
Haley Weis scored a point to give Stanton the 24-23 lead and Brielle Brown sent her serve bouncing off the Griswold defender to give the Viqueens a 25-23 win and tying the match 1-1.
“We were very evenly matched across the boards and we knew we were going to have to fight for everything and we went out and did that,” Haley Weis said.
Stanton and Griswold kept close early in game three, but the Viqueens tacked on a few more points to make it 10-5.
Stanton was up 13-10, but Griswold rallied to score four straight points and take the lead. The Tigers tried to maintain the lead, but Stanton kept tying the game.
With Griswold leading 17-16, Stanton scored five of the next seven points, capped off by a Chelsea Weis kill, to take a 21-18 lead, forcing Griswold to call a time out.
A couple points later, Griswold had the game tied 22-22. The Viqueens however scored two straight points to take the lead back 24-22.
Not wanting to go down 2-1, Griswold tied the game at 24. The rally for the Tigers halted as Stanton took the lead on a Haley Weis spike and scored once more to win game three 26-24.
Game four once again was close as both teams traded the lead. The Viqueens rallied though to put the score at 17-12, forcing Griswold to call a time out.
Stanton scored twice after the time out before Melodie Anstey blasted a kill in an attempt to halt the rally.
It did little as Stanton scored twice more to take a 21-13 lead.
Griswold kept fighting back and soon the Stanton lead was down to three points (23-20), forcing the Viqueens to call a time out.
An ace by Marlia Rossell after the time out got the lead down to two. However, a spike by Chelsea Weis got Stanton to 24, allowing Lauren Stephens to serve for the match.
Griswold burned its second time out and it paid off as they scored to keep their regional final hopes alive.
At 24-22, Chelsea Weis sent everyone home with a spike to the floor, clinching the win for Stanton and an appearance in the regional final for a sixth straight time.
It’s the second straight year Stanton has eliminated Griswold from the regional semifinals.
Four Stanton players had double-digit kills in the Griswold win. Haley Weis led the way for Stanton with 16 kills. Chelsea Weis meanwhile had 15 kills. Heidi Vanderholm had 12 kills, while Focht finished with 10.
Focht was also the leader in assists with 25. Logan Wagg meanwhile had 24 assists.
Devin Druivenga was one of two players with double-digit digs as she led the team with 15. Chelsea Weis had 12, while Brown had nine.
Leading the way for Griswold was McLaren, who had 19 kills, out of 62 attack attempts and eight kill errors.
“The key for us was we wanted to make sure we had a pretty good match-up right there against [McLaren],” Druivenga said. “We knew where they started her at and we knew what we wanted to do with our rotation.”
Melodie Anstey had 64 attack attempts, but had 18 kills.
Griswold had 80 digs in the loss. Morgan Godwin led the way with 24. Anstey and Rossell each had 14 and McLaren recorded 10.
Stanton’s focus will now be on Grand View Christian (formerly Grand View Park Baptist).
Grand View Christian defeated Murray 3-0 Friday night in the semifinals.
The Viqueens have recent history with Grand View Christian. Stanton played them when they were known as Grandview Park Baptist in the 1A state quarterfinals in 2010, defeating them that year to advance to the semifinals.
The match will take place Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Nodaway Valley High School in Greenfield.
Regional Quarterfinals: Stanton 3, Bedford 1
The Viqueens reached the semifinals by defeating Bedford last Tuesday 3-1. Bedford won the first game 25-21. Stanton stormed back to win the other three games 25-23, 25-17 and 25-16.
Haley and Chelsea Weis each led the team with 12 kills. Focht finished with eight kills and 15 assists. Logan Wagg led the team with 18 assists.
Three Stanton players had eight digs, including Druivenga, Brown and Chelsea Weis.
Regional Quarterfinals: Griswold 3, Lenox 0
Griswold got into the semifinal with their 25-9, 25-15 and 25-17 win against Lenox. Anstey had 13 kills and eight digs for Griswold.
McLaren had 11 kills, while Katie Duggan finished with four. Rossell had 25 assists, while Morgan Godwin finished with 13 digs.