B-B-E volleyball advances to subsection finals (VIDEO)

Note: this web article was updated on Monday, October 30.

The Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa volleyball team survived a stiff challenge from Brandon-Evansville before winning a 3-2 match on Friday, October 27 in the Sub-Section 6A-South semifinals. The Jaguars held a 2-1 advantage in sets before the Chargers picked up a 25-19 win in the fourth set. B-B-E came out strong in game five and recovered from an early 3-1 deficit to win 15-7 and take the match.

Next: the No. 13-ranked Jaguars (22-5-1) travel to Fergus Falls high school on Thursday, November 2 for the subsection championship. Their opponent will be No. 2-seeded West Central Area, and the match should start between 7:30 and 8 p.m. depending on how fast the Sub-Section 6A-North finals take (first serve at 6 p.m.).

Remember that you can catch up on all things related to B-B-E's varsity teams by bookmarking and visiting the Bonanza Valley Voice's Jaguars Sports extended coverage blog: https://bbejaguars.blogspot.com. Video from game three against Brandon-Evansville is featured in the video attached to this web article.

Notes on the West Central Area Knights...

The WCA Knights won via sweep in their semifinal match on Friday in Barrett against Parkers Prairie, an outstanding team that finished 24-6. Three of the six losses were to WCA. Game scores were 25-22, 25-18, 25-21. In game one, WCA had to rally from an initial 12-5 deficit. They trailed 12-7 in the third set before rallying with a 5-0 run to take the lead.

Entering this week's subsection finals, WCA has a 21-9 overall record. They went 9-5 in the rugged West Central Conference, which was good for a tie for third place with Melrose Area. In matches involving Section 6A teams, the Knights went 7-0 this fall.

The two big hitters for WCA are Mya Foslien and Izzy Puchalski. Foslien had a monster night against Parkers Prairie last Friday with 20 kills, 11 of them coming in the second set.

After a 3-0 loss to Sauk Centre in Barrett on September 21, the Knights held a 6-6 overall record. Since then they've been on a nice run, with losses only to BOLD, Sauk Centre and Minnewaska Area.

WCA was champions of the Parkers Prairie tournament on September 23 and took second place at the Fergus Falls tournament on October 19. It's worth noting that the October 19 tournament was in the same venue that we will play in on Thursday night.

WCA's team features players who were part of the 2021 state tournament team that lost to our girls' basketball Jaguars in the state quarterfinals at Perham high school (Mya Foslien and Macy Grosz.)

Looking at WCA volleyball history...

During the 2022 volleyball season, the Knights went 18-10 overall and 7-7 in the WCC. The playoffs of 2022 featured a disappointing 3-1 loss in the quarterfinals of the Sub-Section 3AA-North tournament.

In the 2021 volleyball season, the Knights had a terrific record of 22-7, but they had a 1-1 showing in the Sub-Section 3AA-North playoffs with a season-ending 3-0 loss to Paynesville Area. That was WCA's final season in the Pheasant Conference.

In the 2020 COVID season, the Knights had a 5-9 overall record. In 2019, they went 5-18 overall (1-7 Pheasant Conference).

From the fall of 1997 through the fall of 2010, WCA competed in the Heart O' Lakes Conference. They were not in a conference in 1996, but from 1993 through 1995, WCA was a member of the former West Central South Conference with our B-B-E Jaguars.

WCA has not played in a volleyball sub-section championship match since 2007, when they lost in the Sub-Section 6A-South finals to Wheaton/Herman-Norcross. More recently, from 2016 through the 2022 seasons, the Knights had just one playoff win to their credit. They also lost playoff openers in 2008 and 2010 through 2012. What this all means is that they are having a special playoff run, and a team with that type of confidence and bad history to overcome can be dangerous this deep in the postseason.