Its first year out of the Valley Conference, Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial came to town on Monday, but even though they finished first in the newly formed South Central Conference, the Clippers didn’t have much trouble dispatching the Knights in three.
A day later, the Clippers also swept host Sleepy Eye. On Thursday, they did the same to visiting Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Martin Luther/Truman.
With ace blocks by Jocelyn Bartell and Jocelyn Kortuem the Clippers took a 5-2 lead in game one against LCWM and never glanced backwards. With kills off the hands of Ava Hahn and Taylor McCabe and a Maya Lassiter service ace, they led 12-5. Melia Sathoff and Anika Sathoff swung for kills to put the Clippers in front 14-7.
The Knights upped their offense from there, but the game ended 25-18 on an Anika Sathoff ace block.
Game two was all Clippers. It began with kills by the Sathoff sisters and ended 25-12 on a Knight hit out of bounds.
Trying to survive, the Knights fought hard in game three. They started with a kill, but the Clippers scored six out of the next seven points where the Knights scored on a kill.
The Knights rallied for a pair of kills and an ace block to pull within one, 6-5 before McCabe tipped down an ace, and Melia Sathoff sent over an ace serve.
LCWM took a 9-8 lead on a four-point that included an ace block and a kill. Hahn smacked back-to back kills to take the lead back for the Clippers, but the Knights kep the pressure on with a kill and a pair of aces serves in another four-point spurt to lead 13-10.
McCabe and Hahn swung for winners, and with a Knight hit out of bounds, the game deadlocked at 13, but the Knights came up with three-straight kills to take the lead back.
But after each team traded a couple of points, the Clippers, trailing by three, said enough is enough and won 10 of the next 13 points with the game ending 25-11 on a Melia Sathoff kill.
With 23 kills, Han led the offense. Melia Sathoff had nine kills. Anika Sathoff had six kills. Sophie Perkins hit for one kill. Bartell had two kills. Taylor McCabe had eight kills while Lacey McCabe had one kill.
Perkins set for 28 assists. Savannah Meyer and Melia Sathoff each had one set assist. Bartell had one solo block for a winner and three ace block assists. Taylor McCabe had to solo ace blocks and one ace block assist. Hahn, Perkins and Anika Sathoff each had one ace block assist.
Hahn scooped 11 digs. Meyer had 13 digs. Melia Sathoff had nine digs. Lacey McCabe had five digs. Perkins had 11 digs Lassiter had one dig. Anika Sathoff had two digs, and Bartell had one dig.
Hahn served three aces. Meyer had two ace serves. Anika Sathoff and Lassiter each had one ace serve.
Losing to Le Sueur-Henderson a day later for a conference split, LCWM won their conference with a 9-1 record.
At Sleepy Eye on Tuesday, the Clippers won easily, 25-11, 25-17, 25-10
Hahn had 10 kills, four ace serves, six digs and one ace block assist. Meyer had one kill, two set assists, two ace serves and 13 digs. Melia Sathoff had eight kills, a pair of service aces and four digs. Anika Sathoff had five kills, two solo ace blocks, and one assisted ace block.
Bartell had two kills, two digs, one solo ace block and three ace block assists. Lassiter had two kills. Addi Holden had one kill. Taylor McCabe had one solo ace block, one assisted ace block and two kills. Perkins set 26 assists and also had two service aces and two ace block assists. Kortuem had one ace serve and one dig. Lacey McCabe had two digs.
Back at Cleveland on Thursday against GHEC/ML/T, the Clippers cakewalked 25-10, 25-9, 25-19.
Hahn racked up a baker’s dozen kills and had seven digs. Melia Sathoff had 10 kills, three service aces, nine digs and a pair of block assists. Bartell hit for five kills and had two digs and two ace block assists. Lacey McCabe put down one kill and pulled up four digs. In the first play of the game, Lassiter swung for a kill, but it was a costly one because she injured her knee on the landing.
Holden had two kills and one dig. Taylor McCabe had four kills, one service ace and one dig. Keira Schipper had one kill and one dig. Perkins set up 29 points and also had one ace serve and seven digs. Kortuem had one kill and five digs. Meyer hoisted 15 digs and swung for a pair of kills.
The Clippers won a tournament in Goodhue on Saturday. See upcoming story.
Above: Melia Sathoff, Lacey McCAbe, Savannah Meyer, Ava Hahn, Taylor McCabe and Anika Sathoff come together as they start to close out LCWM.
