ST. CLOUD -- The Minnesota West Lady Jay volleyball team played a pair of matches Friday night in St. Cloud, earning a split with a win over St. Cloud Tech in the opener in five games before dropping the nightcap with Central Lakes in four games.
MW (1-2) battled back to edge St. Cloud Tech in the opener with the game scores being 16-25, 25-17, 23-25, 25-21 and 15-11.
"We came out a little slow, maybe from a little bus lag," MW head coach Marie Johnson said. "It took us awhile to get going and we lost the first game, but then we really controlled the second game and played to our level.
"In the third game, there was a little less talking out there, but we battled back to take the last two games to get the win."
Katey Granstra (one block) led the Lady Jays with 21 kills against Tech, while Brittany Hulstein recorded 14 kills, 20 digs, nine ace serves and two blocks.
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Mara Eichenberger tallied 48 set assists, while Christine Kazemba added 11 kills, Maddie Rasche (five aces) had 17 digs and Lindsey Drooger had a block in the opener.
The Lady Jays seemingly carried the momentum over from the five-game win over Tech into the match with CL by claiming the opening game.
However, CL won the next three games to take the match by game scores of 20-25, 25-11, 25-21 and 25-20.
"We really took some momentum from the first match into the match with Central Lakes and were able to get the first game," Johnson said. "But by the second game, we looked a little worn out.
"We played hard in the third and fourth games, but you could tell the Central Lakes had a little more energy than us. It was a long day of volleyball for the girls."
Granstra (two blocks) hit 15 kills for MW, followed by Hulstein (five aces, three blocks) with 10 kills.
Eichenberger collected 12 digs and 26 set assists, while Rasche had 13 digs and Kazemba had a pair of blocks in the nightcap.
The Lady Jays return to action next Saturday with a tournament in Rochester.
