Volleyball: Bombers tally fifth-place finish at home invite

Cannon Falls struggled with mistakes Saturday at its home invitational but still finished fifth out of 12 teams.

The Bombers (16-4, 9-2 HVL) went undefeated in pool play, defeating Plainview-Elgin-Millville 25-12, 25-20 and LeRoy-Ostrander 25-19, 25-15.

In the tournament round of play, Cannon Falls dropped its first match to Eau Claire Regis 25-22, 25-20 before defeating Ellsworth 25-18, 25-17 and winning 25-22, 25-20 against Farmington.

“We had some moments of committing too many errors in a row which gave too many points to our opponents,” Cannon Falls head coach Melissa Huseth said. “But overall on the day I saw some great play as a team after a long and fun Homecoming week.”

Against Eau Claire Regis, the Bombers led most of the first set until Regis used a 5-2 run to break out of a 20-20 tie and win the set. IN the second set, Cannon Falls gave Regis two leads with serve errors in the first 20 points and had trouble finding consistency on offense. With the score tied at 8, Regis went on a 10-5 run and never lost control of the set.

During the Bombers’ second tournament match, senior MaKenzie Franklin powered home kills and Lydia Franken caught Ellsworth sleeping with quick tip kills. In both sets, the teams traded leads early before Cannon Falls overcame the Panthers down the stretch.

Franklin led the Bombers with 43 kills and 15 blocks, Lydia Franken had a team-leading 69 set assists and 14 aces and Becca Vandenheuvel tallied a team-high 50 digs. Hailey Huseth finished with 25 kills, 38 set assists, 27 digs, four aces and six blocks. Madasyn Hofstedt tallied 15 kills and Katie Noble contributed 14 kills and 10 blocks.

Cannon Falls will host Byron Tuesday.

Lake City struggles at Cannon Falls Invite

Lake City came up short in all three of its matches Saturday at the Cannon Falls Invite.

The Tigers fell 25-11, 25-6 to St. Croix Lutheran, 25-15, 25-7 to Waterville-Elysian-Morristown during pool play.

In the first round of tournament play, Lake City never got going against Rochester Lourdes, dropping the match 25-10, 25-13.

In the 11th place match, Lake City led for much of the first set before losing 27-25. The second set was more of the same as Cotter pulled out the set 25-23 to grab the victory.

The Tigers host Pine Island Tuesday.

Ellsworth takes 8th at invite

Ellsworth took second during pool play at the Cannon Falls Invitational Saturday before placing eighth out of 12 teams.

The Panthers won one of their two matches during pool play, taking down Rochester Lourdes 25-15, 19-25 but losing to Farmington 25-17, 27-25.

Ellsworth faced St. Croix Lutheran, which took third at the tournament, in the first round of the tournament matches, falling 25-10, 25-13. In the Panthers’ second round game, they took on Cannon Falls, losing a close match 25-18, 25-17. During the seventh-place match, Ellsworth fell 25-17, 25-23 to Plainview-Elgin-Millville.

The Panthers will play Amery Tuesday in Ellsworth.

Tags: cannon falls, lake city, sports, prep, volleyball, ellsworth