ST. PAUL -- Lake of the Woods rallied from a two-game deficit. But the Bears still came up two points short here Saturday.
Meadow Creek Christian edged Lake of the Woods 25-23, 25-21, 18-25, 25-27, 16-14 in the third-place match of the Minnesota Class A high school volleyball tournament.
The Bears were tied at 14 in the fifth game, only to see MCC pull out the win on back-to-back kills by Steph Rohwer and Danielle Carter.
"I was happy that the girls hadn't given up," Lake of the Woods coach Jill Olson said. "A lot of times, after you see a team lose the first two games, they sort of hand it over. But the girls hung in there.
"It was neck in neck the last game. I thought we were going to pull it off."
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Lake of the Woods jumped to a 7-3 lead in the fifth game, only to see MCC go on a 7-1 run to take a 10-8 advantage. The teams were tied at 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14.
"We had so many long rallies," Olson said. "It was just a really well-played game."
Lauren Sutherland and Kelli Strandlund had 15 kills and Carter 13 to pace the MCC offense, with Rohwer getting 45 assists.
Ashley Feldman had a match-high 20 kills to pace Lake of the Woods, which closed with a 23-10 record. Ali Hasbargen added 12 kills, Holland Johnson nine and Shelby Nosan seven. Jessica Marken had 44 assists for the Bears.
Feldman was named to the Class A all-tournament team.
The fourth-place finish came after Lake of the Woods went 0-2 in the 2008 state tournament, failing to place.
"We're feeling much better than last year," Olson said. "I'm happy with fourth place. We played well."
