Visiting Tartan Stops Henry Sibley Netters in Three

Something had to give when host met visiting Tartan Thursday evening in a battle of undefeated Classic Suburban Conference teams.

Both Sibley and Tartan came into Thursday’s match with 2-0 records, but it was Tartan that left with its undefeated record intact. The Titans swept the Warriors in three games, winning 29-27, 25-23 and 25-20.

The Warriors got off to good lead in both of the first two games, leading 10-3 in the first and 16-9 before the Titans rallied for the win. The second game was similar with Sibley grabbing an early 10-6 lead only to have Tartan rally.

Kaisa Mattson and Bethany Rylicki each had 11 kills. Angie Prell had eight kills for the Titans.

“We need a little bit more fire,” said Henry Sibley head coach Katie Naughton. “We need a little bit more communication and we’ve been talking a lot about that during practices.”

The Warriors struggled with their consistency against the Titans.

“The girls started out strong tonight,” Naughton agreed. “We just had our glimpses of—we go, and we fight, and we play well—and then all of a sudden we give up and we lay back. And then we come back, and we fight again and then we lay back again.”

“I’m happy that we won and I’m happy we won in three, that’s always a good thing,” said Tartan coach Josh Mattison. “There’s a lot of room for improvement. I felt like we made a lot of mistakes. We had a good game plan in mind. We knew what they were going to do to us.”

Tartan (3-0) will play a first round game against LeSueur-Henderson Friday in the Southwest Minnesota Challenge at Marshall.

Henry Sibley (2-1) plays at North St. Paul Tuesday, starting at 7 p.m.