NRHEG fell 25-20, 25-17 and 25-20.
The Blossoms improved 3-3 in the Gopher and 18-7-2 for the year.
Carlie Wagner paced NRHEG’s offensive attack with nine kills, Katie Cole smacked five kills and Jade Schultz added three kills. Wagner also had three ace blocks.
Noelle Bartness paced the defense with 11 digs, Wagner had nine digs. Schultz contributed seven digs and Cole picked up six digs.
Bartness handed out 25 set assists running the offense.
The Panthers, who defeated BP twice a year ago, has a return match with the Blossoms in a week.
WEM
WEM rolled past the Panthers for the second time this season, winning three straight games at Waterville last Thursday. The Buccaneers won the earlier meeting in four games.
WEM held a 75-48 scoring advantage for the evening, winning 25-12, 25-15 and 25-21.
The Bucs improved to 4-2 in the conference and 19-7 overall.
“This was a tough loss for us tonight,” said Kuechenmeister. “We’ve caught the injury bug a little bit so we’ve had some girls step into positions that they aren’t necessarily comfortable with and that was evident tonight.”
Wagner topped the Panther offense with eight kills, Schultz delivered six kills and Paige Overgaard added five kills.
Wagner picked up three ace blocks at the net.
Shayna Kinniry led the Buccaneers with 15 kills and Kamryn Kendall added 10 kills.
The NRHEG defense was kept busy by the Bucs. Hannah Lundberg collected 10 digs, Shultz contributed nine digs and Wagner finished with eight digs.
WEM’s Brittany Buesgens led her squad with 14 digs.
Anna Lundberg handed out 18 assists for the Panthers.
Danielle Bauer dished out 14 assists for the Buccaneers.
“WEM put together a solid performance,” said Kuechenmeister. “We knew we had to take care of the things we could control. We weren’t able to do that and that is why we struggled.”
NRHEG closes its regular season schedule with a non-conference match at Waseca next Thursday.
BP 3, NRHEG 0
NRHWG 20 17 20 57
BP 25 25 25 75
WEM 3, NRHEG 0
NRHEG 12 15 21 48
WEM 25 25 25 75
NEXT: Oct. 25 – NRHEG at Waseca, 7:30 p.m.
