The Mustangs stepped on the court Saturday morning at Two Rivers High School with a ton of confidence after nearly beating Concordia Academy on Thursday. Their first opponent was St. Cloud Tech who had recent wins over Holy Family who the Mustangs lost to earlier in the season and Alexandria who is ranked #14 in Class AAA. The Mustangs started out the tournament strong with a two set win over St. Cloud Tech (25-19, 25-17). They followed that up with a (25-16, 25-18) win over St. Paul Harding. Their last match of pool play was against their first AAAA school opponent, Two Rivers High School, to see who would win the pool. The Mustangs tough serves and fast offense was too much for the Warriors to adjust to on their way to a first place finish in pool play with a (25-20, 25-11) win over Two Rivers.
After a short break, Maranatha was matched up against another AAAA school, Robbinsdale Armstrong, in the first round of bracket play. The Mustangs got off to a slow start but battled back for another easy win (25-18, 25-11) over the Falcons. Maranatha advanced to the Championship match where they would face their third AAAA school of the day, the Woodbury Royals. The Mustangs once again got out to a slow start, getting down 3-10, before a huge comeback to win the first set. They kept the pressure on through the rest of the match and defeated the Royals (25-20, 25-10) to finish with a record of 5-0 and champs of the Two Rivers Tournament.
The Mustangs have a busy upcoming with with three straight days of matches against Trinity, Kimball, and St. Croix Prep starting on Monday, September 23. They end the week with their last tournament of the season when they to Chisago Lakes on Saturday, September 28 where they will play Chisago Lakes, Mahtomedi, and Pine City in pool play followed by playoffs.
c-team 2nd place finish
The Mustangs C-team headed to Lakeville South on Saturday morning to play against the big schools. With only seven players on the roster, the Mustangs knew they would have to preserve energy while finding a way to battle and win big points at the end of sets.
They had a great morning with wins over Burnsville and Edina and a tie against Eden Prairie to finish first in pool play. They faced a tough Eagan team in the first round of bracket play to move on to the championship. The Mustangs gave it their best effort but couldn’t get the win in the final match. Despite the loss, the girls had a great tournament and should be extremely proud of their 2nd place finish against much bigger schools.
