FERGUS FALLS -- Hancock won the opening gameof the Section 6A championship match with Ada-Borup Saturday, but the Cougars then won the next three to advance to the state tournament.
The Owls (27-2) were biding for their first state tournament appearance since 1988, but Ada-Borup had other plans adn won 23-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-18 and qualified for state for the fifth time in its program's history.
Kendra Schmidgall pounded away a match-high 25 kills for Hancock, but Ada-Borup kept the Owls off-balanced with its defense and serving. Schmidgall finished the season with 522 kills, the area's third-best single-season total of all time.
"The first game was close and it went back and forth with Kendra being able to get the ball down without any blocks and (Tiffany) Strand doing the same (for Ada-Borup)," said Hancock coach Kristi Fehr. "But in the next three sets (Ada-Borup) really stepped up its game.
"They were able to block and it was more our fault as our passing game fell apart. We struggled to get any offense and our passing was not on target. And they served extremely aggressive, which threw us off."
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Strand had 21 kills and sisters Megan Kolness and Katie Kolness supplied the Cougars with 12 more each.
Courtney Greiner added 13 kills and Aria Walstad piled up 45 assists for the Owls. Schmidgall also led the team with 20 digs.
Ada-Borup 3, Hancock 1
Ada-Borup (25-6) 23 25 25 25
Hancock (27-2) 25 21 18 18
(Key: good-attempts-aces)
Ada-Borup
Statistics not available
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Hancock
Serving: Kendra Schmidgall 18-18-1, Ali Reese 12-13-0, Aria Walstad 15-17-0, Lauren Nelson 15-16-1, Illissa Koehl 9-9-2, Shae Brown 8-10-1 ... Setting: Walstad 98-103-45, Abby Ascheman 3-3-1, Reese 2-2-1 ... Hitting: Schmidgall 50-59-25, Reese 3-3-0, Walstad 17-19-5, Nelson 20-21-6, Courtney Greiner 35-44-12, Ascheman 6-9-4 ... Blocking (aces): Schmidgall 1, Walstad 1, Nelson 1 ... Digs: Schmidgall 20, Reese 13, Walstad 7, Nelson 13, Greiner 6, Koehl 9, Brown 7, Ascheman 8
