Lydia smashes 1,000 kills

Lydia Sussner flashed one finger in front of her face.

That was how many kills she needed coming into the Windom game Thursday night. That one smash would mean 1,000 career kills.

She got it right away — but the crowd was kept in suspense until the end of the first set.

Minneota went on to defeat Windom 3-1 by scores of  25-21; 23-25; 25-18 and 25-21.

It closed out the regular season with a 23-5 record and Sussner got her 1,000 kills.

Neither team played particularly well, but the Vikings snuck out the first set, 25-21, lost the second set 23-25 but used a seven-straight serve binge from Abby Hennen to earn a 24-18 win.

It was in that game that Sussner caught fire, had three blocks for points and a kill during Abby Hennen's serving streak and the Vikings coasted home the rest of the way.

They built a 4-1 lead, went up 14-10 on a Sussner kill and finally won the fourth game, 25-21 when Sussner smashed the final two points to put an exclamation on her 1,000-point night.

Lizzy Gillingham also was hot at the net and had several nice digs in the back court. Morgan Hennen paired with sister Abby on several occassions to help save the Vikings despite erratic passing.

And Ellie Pesch came in to give some stability to the serving game.

The Vikings open tournament play at 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 27 at home against Dawson-Boyd or Hendricks.

Minneota     25  23  25  25

Windom      21  25   18  21