SHELTON — In Tuesday’s subdistrict final, Tri County Northeast was down a set and trailing 17-7 in the second before rallying for a five-set win over Cedar Catholic.
Sadly, history would not repeat itself on Saturday as the Wolfpack girls couldn’t solve the triple-tower attack of defending Class D-2 champion Shelton. The host Bulldogs held off rallies in each of the three sets to advance to state with a 25-18, 25-15, 25-20 win in the D1-5 district final at Shelton High School.
The Wolfpack got off to a great start in the first set, serving directly at Shelton’s libero. Her early struggles led to an ace serve by Joslyn Mackling and two attack errors to give the Wolfpack the early 3-0 advantage.
TCNE (24-6) would continue to attack the back row and rebuilt their lead to as many as three points at 12-9 before the Bulldogs rallied behind the hitting of 6-foot senior Erin Gegg, 5-foot-7 senior Macy Will and 5-foot-9 senior Jalyn Branson. The Bulldog trio began to assert themsel es at the net and helped Sehlton rally from that three-point deficit, going on a 16-6 tun ro close out the opening set.
Shelton carried that momentum into the second set and TCNE struggled with several unforced errors. Shelton (26-5) led by as many as 12 points at 21-9 and cruised to the 2-0 lead in the best-of-five match.
The Wolfpack didn’t quit, however, and battled Shelton valiantly in the final set. Senior Kiya Tornez, a 5-foot-4 outside hitter, rejected a pair of attacks by Gegg, who stands eight inches taller, and Briley Anderson and Ally Belt combined on another block to help TCNE rally to a 19-19 tie.
Shelton was able to regain the lead and got a key block by Camilla Michalski off a Tornez kill to make it 21-19. Anderson was able to stave off match point with a kill to get the score to 24-20, but Branson’s kill off a TCNE block ended the match and sent the Bulldogs to next week’s state tournament in Lincoln
Tornez led the TCNE net attack with 12 kills, Mackling added nine and Anderson had three.
Complete game coverage in net week’s edition of the Dakota County Star.
