ELLSWORTH — Two teams hungry for a conference rivalry win stepped into the Ellsworth High School gym Thursday for some electric volleyball action, and only one would go home victorious. Ellsworth trailed by a significant margin in each of the first four sets, but the Panthers battled back to win a pair of them, going on to a set five victory.

“So much. At the beginning of the season when we had our first conversation, I had said, ‘It’s there, we’re tasting it and I can’t wait until it happens.’ I feel like, at this moment, we finally have hit that rotation and setup of the players that are giving it their all in every single spot that they have. I couldn’t have asked anything more. This win tonight was more than just a conference win for us, it was a game-changing booster for the rest of our season,” Ellsworth Coach Kayla Klecker said.

Up 14-13 in set one, Emilyn Ennenga got a pair of kills and Karlee Wall smacked a couple of serves that would not be returned to open it up to an 18-13 lead. An Ellsworth timeout changed everything, going on a 12-1 run to take the set 25-19, finished off by a Regan Nelson ace.
Prescott kept swinging, taking a 13-7 lead. The Cardinals have been formidable this year at the net, and they were again Thursday. Even some of the points Ellsworth was securing were blocked, going out of bounds before they would bounce. Prescott opened that lead to 17-10 before the Panthers rallied to cut that line to 18-17. The Cardinals pulled it over the finish line this time 25-21, with three late blocks at the net aiding the cause.

“We are very lucky to have tall athletes that can press over the net. That’s a huge opportunity for a momentum shift to get a block and send a message to the other team like that’s not going to work here. You’re going to have to do something a little different than maybe what you’re used to score a point against us,” Prescott Coach Geoffrey Snyder said. “We’ve got to capitalize on it. We’ve got to make sure we do the next couple of steps correctly to follow through.”

Ellsworth opened up to an early 11-6 lead in set three, but Prescott flipped that script all the way to 17-13 in the Cardinals’ favor. That would not be the final rally of the set, as Ellsworth trailed 18-17 a few points later. At 24-23, the teams came out of a timeout with an electric rally. After some back and forth, Maye Petersen crushed the ball right to the middle of the floor for a 2-1 lead.

“This is the strongest mental team that I’ve had the opportunity to coach. The ability to come into a five-point, six-point deficit and still show up and show out until that last point, whether it’s won or not in that last set, is a true testament to their character, and I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Klecker said.

Set four was all Prescott, winning 25-17 to send the teams to a fifth and final set. Freshman Zoe Ptacek ended the set up the middle with a hit that broke the Ellsworth wall.

The two teams were letting it fly in the final set, leaving nothing on the table. Ultimately, the Panthers had a little more left in the tank to win 15-11.

“It means a lot because we’re pretty young and we’re starting out pretty strong. I think we have a lot more to come in the future,” Ellsworth senior hitter Alivia Maher said. “We were struggling for a little bit, but we really came back in the end. We knew we wanted to win, so we just put it down.”

Ellsworth has been working hard this season to continually improve, and some of those improvements showed Thursday.
“We really worked on out-of-system stuff. When the ball is not exactly to our setters, and when our hitters are off the net, really staying controlled and putting a ball into play for the opposing team to ultimately make that error for us,” Klecker said. “Truly earning every point.”

“Just tipping deep corners and hitting hard through their block,” Maher said. “Just keep playing like we are, get better every day.”

Prescott had a similar five-set matchup earlier in conference play but came away victorious 3-2. Snyder said the team needs to keep that energy alive to go on a run late in the season.

“I saw just this really great mental toughness [against St. Croix Central],” Snyder said. “If we could just channel that a little more consistently, that will hopefully yield more results.”

Prescott has three seniors, Grace Ptacek, Karlee Wall and Delaney Nelson. The trio is electric on the court, but they also bring the energy for the Cardinals this season.

“All three are starters. Karlee and Grace are just sound options for our setter to go-to for offense, and Delaney Nelson is just the fire for our team. She’s passionate, she’s excited to be out there, she wants to win, she wants to do whatever it takes to win. When she gets on, everybody really rallies behind her.”