Brainerd wins second conference match

Trisha Kraemer and Carlie Sweet capped a huge fourth-game comeback as the Brainerd Warriors defeated St. Cloud Apollo 3-1 Thursday for their second Central Lakes Conference win of the season.

Trailing 24-19 in the fourth game, Kraemer served out the final seven points, assisted by two big Sweet kills.

After losing the first game 25-14, the Warriors took the next two by identical 25-18 scores to set up the exciting finish.

"Being down 19-24 and coming back from that ... that's taking inches," Warriors coach Jared Diem said.

"We had 17 aces for the night and only 10 service errors," he added. "That's pretty good for us ... usually it's more the opposite."

Alanna Hansen was 100 percent serving, going 21 for 21 with five aces and no errors to go with 24 set assists. MiKinzie Hradsky also had five ace serves, Sydnie Mauch had 10 kills and nine blocks while Hallsey Olson added 17 digs.

"Apollo is a lot like us, a team in transition," Diem said. "Tonight, this game could have gone either way. We're getting great fan support and that really helped."

"We've doubled our conference wins from last year and we're going into Pierz (tournament) this weekend on a high."

St. Cloud Apollo 25 18 18 24

Brainerd 14 25 25 26

Brainerd statistics

Hallsey Olson 1 ace serve, 17 digs, 1 kill

Carlie Sweet 1 ace serve, 4 digs, 6 kills, 2 blocks

Alanna Hansen 5 ace serves, 1 dig, 24 set assists, 2.5 blocks

Trisha Kramer 2 ace serves, 1 dig, 1 kill, .5 block

Sydnie Mauch 1 set assist, 10 kills, 9 blocks

Alice Widmark 2 ace serves, 1 dig, 7 kills, 1 block

MiKinzie Hradsky 5 ace serves, 3 digs,

Tess Rahto 1 dig, 1 set assist, 4 kills, 6 blocks

Allison Mueller 1 ace serve, 1 dig, 4 kills, 7.5 blocks

Conference: Brd 2-5. Overall: Brd 6-7. Next: Brainerd at Pierz tournament 9 a.m. Saturday.