Willmar drops into third-place tie

ST. CLOUD -- Willmar was playing its best volleyball over its last four matches, but on Tuesday the Cardinals were cooled down by St. Cloud Tech as the Tigers posted a 25-11, 25-22, 25-21 Central Lakes Conference sweep.

The teams now have identical 4-3 records in the Central Lakes Conference, good for third place behind Fergus Falls and Brainerd. Willmar (4-6 overall) took Fergus Falls to five games last week and had won the three previous matches before that.

"We didn't show up to play," said Willmar coach Terrin DeBoer. "We didn't block well and our offense couldn't get going. We made too many hitting errors and that's tough to get points."

Emily Minnick had 8 kills to pace Willmar, but no other Cardinal had more than 5. Contributing 4 kills each were Addy Nelsen, Katie Lippert and Lindsey Atchison.

Riley Grussing had 19 assists in 62 sets and also led Willmar with 11 digs.

The Cardinals are at home on Thursday to host Sauk Rapids in another CLC matchup. Willmar then hosts its annual tournament on Saturday.

SC Tech 3, Willmar 0

Willmar (4-3 4-6) 11 22 21

St. Cloud Tech (4-3 6-4) 25 25 25

(Key: good-attempts-aces)

Willmar

Serving: Addy Nelsen 11-11-1, Emily Minnick 12-13-3, Lindsey Atchison 7-8-1, Laura Swartz 6-7-0, Riley Grussing 2-4-0, Casey Marcus 8-8-0 ... Setting: Grussing 60-62-19 ... Hitting: Nelsen 15-18-4, Katie Lippert 20-22-4, Minnick 13-20-8, Atchison 12-15-4, Swartz 3-4-0, Grussing 4-5-1, Hailey Vreeman 4-4-1 ... Blocking (aces): Nelsen 1, Lippert 1, Minnick 1, Grussing 1 ... Digs: Atchison 10, Grussing 11, Marcus 10, Swartz 5

St. Cloud Tech

Statistics not available