October 8, 2021   Sports

EHS Battles Falcons in Five-Game Thriller

By Mike Drooger –

The Red Rock Central Falcons volleyball team played Southwest Minnesota Christian in Edgerton on Monday night, September 27. The Falcon players barely had time to get home, brush their teeth and/or hair, and board the bus for Edgerton to take on the Dutchmen on Tuesday night the 28th.

The B-teams helped get the cheering sections into the action thanks to an exciting “B” match. Edgerton won the second game 27-25 but fell behind 8-3 in game three. Then Briley Sluis, behind five aces, served Edgerton to a lead of 12-9. Lydia Rylaarsdam and Elli Fleischman connected on kills for points 13 and 14, and Rihanna Hulstein ended the match with an ace serve and a 2-1 Edgerton win.

The varsity Falcons displayed a little “jetlag” in their opening game vs. Edgerton as the Dutchmen won 25-14, but they regrouped and took games two, three, and five for an exciting Red Rock Conference victory. Game scores were 14-25, 25-14, 25-19, 23-25, and 15-7.

The Falcons, in the person of Karli Arkell, have one of the conference’s—if not the entire SW corner of the state’s—best volleyball players. She’s 6’3”. Her standing reach is 7’10”. When she jumps for a spike attempt, her hand at its peak can be 9’11” off the ground. When she blocks, she reaches 8’10”. (All of those stats were found at www.ncsasports.org.) And she’s athletic. She’s heading to SMSU in Marshall next year to play volleyball. She’s an imposing figure at the net. RRC’S stat keepers had Arkell with 32 kills and six blocks. And the Dutchmen discovered she’s not too shabby in the back row either, plus she served well.

Even with all the positives going on for Miss Arkell, the Dutchmen took the first game easily as the

Edgerton setters distributed the ball nicely along the front row. Recipients of those nice sets were Reece Wassink, Alyda Vande Griend, Haley Wieck, Kresley Fraser, and Mateya Gilbertson. RRC helped the Edgerton cause by making a trio of mistakes while Brenalyn Smit was serving. The Falcon miscues put Edgerton up 16-7.

Later, a Vande Griend kill and then a tip pushed the score up to 19-9. Then the Falcons retaliated getting to within 13-19 before Edgerton finished game one with a 6-1 run to win by 11.

For the complete article, please see the October 6th edition of the Edgerton Enterprise. If you do not currently receive the Enterprise, CLICK HERE for information on how to subscribe!