Volleyball: An up and down week

It was shaping up to be a great week of volleyball for Farmington as of about noon on Saturday.

Senior Danielle Dombeck had just become the first recorded player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills and the Tigers, coming off of sweeps of Albert Lea and Red Wing, had just beaten a state-ranked team from Delano in the opening round of the Farmington Tournament.

That’s when things started to go wrong.

The Tigers won Game 1 in their second match against Osseo, then couldn’t close the deal in an eventual three-game loss. The same thing happened in the next match, a three-game loss to Bloomington Kennedy, and the Tigers closed out their home tournament with a 2-0 loss to a Rosemount team they swept earlier in the season.

“We hit a wall and we were missing that component of playing together and taking advantage of opportunities to put teams away,” head coach Mike Woody said. “We had chances to put the games away and we never could. It all came down to attacking and that killer instinct.”

The Tigers had no problem holding onto the big leads they forged during the week. They won Game 1 by a score of 25-20 at home Thursday night against Red Wing, then completed the conference sweep by scores of 25-14 and 25-15.

Katie Habeck led the attack with 14 kills and eight blocks. Dombeck added 12 kills and nine digs and Jordan Bridges helped out in the front row with seven blocks.

Alexia Rains paced the back row with 14 digs and Elizabeth Pappenfus added 11 digs and four ace serves. Rachel Sand lobbed up 21 set assists and Samme Skokan added 12 assists.

The Tigers opened the week with a 25-15, 25-22, 25-11 sweep after a long road trip south to take on Albert Lea.

Dombeck inched closer to the 1,000 career kills mark with a team-leading 11 kills. She eclipsed the mark Saturday while leading the Tigers in kills during the Farmington Tournament. Dombeck, a five-year starter, has verbally committed to play next year at North Dakota State University.

“She’s been in the gym since she was probably 3 years old. She’s clearly mature in the game well ahead of her years,” Woody said. “Over the course of her career she has gotten stronger, she’s become a better jumper and she has had better production every year.”

Habeck backed Dombeck’s front-row effort with 11 kills and 12 blocks against Albert Lea. The tandem was set up by Sand and Skokan, who each provided 17 assists.

Pappenfus led the team with 19 digs, Rains had 15 and Skokan and Dombeck each added seven.

The Tigers face another tough test tonight when they host top-ranked (Class 3A) Shakopee.

Tags: sports, volleyball