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Class 2A state volleyball: Pequot Lakes ends Concordia Academy’s run in semis

paul hodowanic, pioneer press
·3 min read

As the volleyball dropped just inside the right edge of the court, out of reach of the nearest Concordia Academy defender, senior Ava McTeague looked up to her teammates and said, “It’s OK.”

That ball, a tip from the outstretched fingers of a Pequot Lakes attacker over the Beacons blockers, dashed any hopes Concordia Academy (22-11) had of making the state championship. That opportunity was going instead to Pequot Lakes (29-4), which won 25-19, 25-19, 25-13 in a Class 2A state semifinal at Xcel Energy Center on Friday.

But it was not going to change Concordia Academy’s demeanor, not when its never-out-of-it, “point-by-point” mindset had been pivotal to getting them there. The Beacons needed five sets to beat Nova Classical, the previously undefeated top-ranked team in the Section 4 final last week. In the state quarterfinals Thursday, they battled back from several large deficits and won seven of the final eight points to claim a five-set victory over Belle Plaine.

So as the Beacons walked back to their bench, there were no tears or sagging shoulders, just a look of what’s next.

“We’re still here,” head coach Kim Duis said. “We’re one of six teams still playing on a Saturday, and there’s only three teams in our class that will do that. We’re still battling.”

Concordia Academy will play for third place at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The fight was there against Pequot Lakes. Duis saw the same determination and belief that had pushed the team to back-to-back five-set wins, they just ran into a well-oiled machine on the other side of the net.

“They ran a flawless offense tonight,” Duis said of Pequot Lakes.

Concordia Academy managed just 27 kills to Pequot Lakes’ 51. The constant, well-balanced attack kept the Beacons guessing and out of system. When they did dig out of a Pequot Lakes attack they were often out of position to return with the same aggressiveness.

Three Pequot Lakes’ attackers finished with at least 11 kills. No Concordia Academy attacker reached that number. McTeague and her sister Kyla, also a senior, led the team with 10 and eight kills, respectively.

“It was a faster offense than we’ve seen before,” Ava McTeague said.

It wore on the Beacons. Each set started close, with the teams trading points, but every time Pequot Lakes went on a run in the middle of the set that distanced itself from Concordia Academy. The teams were tied at 10 in the first set only for the Patriots to win seven of the next 10 points to take control. Tied at three in the second set, Pequot Lakes scored 13 of the next 16 points to keep the Beacons at a distance.

Even then, Ava McTeague believed they had one more comeback in them.

“We knew that even though they had the first two we could take the second two,” she said. “[But] they just came out very strong.”

The third set was a similar story. Pequot Lakes scored nine straight points, which pushed the lead from three to 12 and all but ended the match.

“Pequot’s a very good team,” Duis said. “Their fast offense, not so much caught us off guard, but we were just not able to stop it.”

The result means Concordia Academy continues to chase its elusive third state championship. The Beacons last won the state title in 1987 and have made the tournament 13 times since, including six times in the last eight years.

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