ROCHESTER — The Caledonia High School volleyball team didn’t have its best day on Saturday, and that stopped it from becoming an MSHSL Class AA state qualifier.
The top-seeded and fifth-ranked Warriors had trouble avoiding mistakes, and the second-seeded and fourth-ranked Gophers took full advantage in a 25-17, 25-22, 18-25, 25-20 victory at the Section 1AA section final Rochester Mayo Civic Arena.
Caledonia swept Chatfield during the regular season, but had the tables turned in the championship match.
“They switched up their lineup from the first time we played them, and they served really tough,” Caledonia coach Dan Reinhart said. “They are obviously ranked (fourth) in our class for a reason.
We also didn’t serve very well and had 10 (service) errors. For as much as we work on that, you’d think we would perform a little better.”
The Warriors (26-6) were led by freshman Ashlyn Reinhart’s 11 kills. She also had a team-high digs, one service ace and one block.
Junior Elsa Blum had 10 kills, 10 digs and 1.5 blocks, and senior Kensey King added eight kills, a team-high four blocks and three digs.
Junior Avery Augedahl had 30 assists to go with nine digs, three aces and one kill, and senior Aubrie Klug had a team-high 31 digs to go with one ace.
Junior Adrienne Lange had three kills, three digs and one block and junior Paizley Lange four digs, one kill and one block.
“They did a great job with our block, and they are senior-loaded,” Reinhart said. “Their libero, their setter and their outside are all seniors, and they were able to frustrate our blockers.”
Reinhart said his team was able to limit its mistakes in a successful third set, and he said the improvement from his relatively young team throughout the season was evident.
“Over the year, I thought they did a great job of understanding the process of what it takes to be a championship team,” he said. “They did well with having emotion but not being emotional.”
