NYM takes fifth place at Barnesville Tournament

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

With the regular season already on its downward slope, the New York Mills volleyball team is beginning to hit its stride of late. The Eagles went 5-1 last week in six games, including a pair of a 3-1 win over both Pelican Rapids and Pillager on Tuesday and Thursday. 

On Saturday the Eagles took fifth place in the annual Barnesville Tournament. NY Mills went 2-1 in pool play with a 25-19, 25-5 win over Win-E-Mac and a 2-1 win over Fertile-Beltrami 16-25, 25-23, 15-5 and a 2-0 loss to Barnesville 25-23, 25-15. 

NY Mills finished in a three way tie for first place with its 2-1 record, but were ranked third in pool play due to a tiebreaker. In the fifth place game, the Eagles came away with a 2-1 win over a familiar opponent in Menahga. The Eagles defeated the Braves 25-13, 23-25, 18-16 to come away with fifth place. 

One of the highlights of the tournament came in the pool play game against Win-E-Mac when junior Ayla Olson got her 100th ace. She ended the tournament with 104 aces, something that has not happened during head coach Tammy Olson’s time at the helm of the Eagles program. The career achievement will be honored during Thursday’s home match against Menahga. 

This week the Eagles will travel to Brandon-Evansville for a non-conference game on Tuesday night, before hosting Menahga on Thursday. NY Mills has just five more games on its schedule for the regular season, before kicking off the sub section tournament the week of October 23. 

Tuesday

NY Mills defeated the Pelican Rapids Vikings by a score of 3-1 on Tuesday night. After picking up two quick wins by scores of 25-20, 25-16 to jump out to a 2-0 lead, the Eagles dropped a heart breaker in the third game by a score of 27-25. The Eagles wasted little time to take the lead in the fourth game and held on for a 25-11 win to come away with the 3-1 win in non-conference action.

The duo of Ayla Olson and Alayna Baune led the offensive charge for the Eagles with 15 and 10 kills respectively, while Grace Brasel finished with a team-high 4 aces. Haley Korkorski led the team with 26 assists, while Gabi Vaden finished with 23 digs, Brasel finished with 20, Olson with 17 and Korkorski finished with 16 digs of her own.

Thursday

The Eagles improved to 2-2 in Park Region Conference play with a 3-1 win over Pillager on Thursday night. The Eagles picked up a win in the first game by a score of 25-14, before dropping a tight second game by a score of 25-19. 

With the match all knotted up at one game apiece, the Eagles won the all-important third game by the narrowest of margins by a score of 26-24 to take a 2-1 lead. The Eagles used that momentum in the fourth game to come away with a 25-9 win and secure the match by a score of 3-1. 

Ayla Olson had one of her best games of the season at the net as the junior finished with 22 kills to go along with 10 assists and 16 digs. 

Haley Korkorski finished with a team-high 24 assists and 19 digs in the game, while Alayna Baune finished with 8 kills to go along with 7 blocks in the win.