Prep volleyball: Willmar clips Alexandria

WILLMAR - The Willmar volleyball team warmed up for a tough week with a solid, five-game victory over Alexandria on Thursday at Willmar High School.
The Cardinals remained atop the Central Lakes Conference standings with a 23-25, 25-21, 25-11, 23-25 and 15-11 victory.
Willmar improved to 6-0 in the CLC and the Cardinals are 8-2 overall. They play Sartell, 5-1 in the CLC entering Thursday’s matches, on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. On Thursday, the Cards play the Rocori Spartans, with whom they share the CLC lead.
Given the road ahead, Cardinals head coach Traci Grussing was pleased not only with the victory but with how her team achieved it.
“Alex is good,” Grussing said. “This is a good win. Leah (Ruter) and Dani (Rosen) hit well, but we had specific game plan going in and everybody did a good job doing what we wanted to do.”
Ruter led the Cards with 29 kills and Rosen finished with 14. Riley Grussing had 55 set assists and served three aces. Cami Sletta and Sarah Smith both had three blocks, and Ruter also had 13 digs.
Willmar 3, Alexandria 2
Alexandria (7-6, 3-3) 25 21 11 25 11
Willmar (8-2, 6-0) 23 25 25 23 15
(Key: good-attempts-aces)
Alexandria
Statistics not available
Willmar
Serving: Addie Erickson 1, Allie Roehl 1, Esther Grussing 1, Riley Grussing 3 … Set assists: Grussing 120-122-55 … Hitting: Esther Grussing 7, Leah Ruter 29, Sarah Smith 6-6-2, Cami Sletta 11-14-4, Catelyn Hauge 1, Dani Rosen 14 … Blocking (aces): Rosen 1, Hauge 1, Sletta 3, Smith 3 … Digs (5 or more): Roehl 28, Emily Chermak 5, Esther Grussing 7, Jamie Reyes 8, Ruter 13, Riley Grussing 9