Gina Eppen probably wasn’t the right person to ask, but nobody else seemed to know either.

Friday, September 21, 2001

Gina Eppen probably wasn’t the right person to ask, but nobody else seemed to know either.

Prior to Thursday night, exactly when was the last Big Nine Conference victory for the Albert Lea High School volleyball team?

The Tigers ended their long skid with a 3-1 victory over Rochester John Marshall, winning 15-6, 15-10, 9-15, 15-5 at ALHS.

&uot;We really wanted to get a conference win,&uot; said Eppen, the Tigers’ first-year head coach. &uot;One of the girls’ goals for the season was to be .500 in the conference, and we felt like we let one slip away at Mankato East Tuesday. We decided after that match we were going to win Thursday, no matter what.&uot;

And they played like it, assuming control from the outset.

&uot;We let them get back in it in game two, and they took game three, but the girls came back and played like we know they can play in the fourth game,&uot; said Eppen. &uot;Hopefully, this will be a confidence builder for us. We had some happy young ladies this evening.&uot;

Aubree Page had a particularly strong match, according to Eppen, totaling nine blocks, five kills, six digs and an ace.

Other statistical leaders: Whitney Sorensen, seven kills, six digs, two aces, two blocks; Jenny Vanderploeg, eight kills, four digs, one block, one ace; Beth Kolling, 16 assists, four digs, three kills, two aces, one block; Kelly Anderson, five assists, three digs, one ace; Amie Hartman, three kills, three digs, one block.

The Tigers improved to 1-3 in the Big Nine and 3-7 overall, and are hopeful of another win Saturday against Northfield, which lost 3-2 to John Marshall earlier this season.