The service line turned into an all-you-can-eat buffet for the LeSueur-Henderson volleyball team against New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva Thursday in the 2AA subsection title game at Gus Young Court on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter as the Giants gobbled up points from their serving to hand the Panthers a season-ending loss.

NRHEG (23-7) rolled through the first two rounds of the subsection tournament, picking up 3-0 victories over Maple River and Blue Earth to reach its first subsection title game in five years, but facing LeSueur-Henderson, the sixth-ranked team in Class 2A, the Panthers went from sweeping opponents to being swept.

NRHEG, the second seed in the south subsection, faced the top-seeded Giants for the right to move on to the section final, but it was poor serve receiving that hurt the Panthers in a 25-12, 25-17, 25-15 season-ending loss.

“LeSueur-Henderson really picked apart our serve receive,” said NRHEG head coach Jackie Schultz. “If you don’t serve receive well, you can’t side out. If you can’t side out, you can’t serve to earn points. That is exactly what happened.”

LeSueur-Henderson went on big runs to start the first two sets to put the Panthers out of sync and ineffectual on offense. After NRHEG got the first point of the match, the Giants went on a 14-0 run courtesy of Kaitlyn Braun’s 14 consecutive service points.

In sum, LeSueur-Henderson tallied 13 ace serves and missed just two serves the entire evening.

“You give up that many points, you’re playing from behind the whole time,” Schultz said.

Braun tallied eight aces and her jump serve caught the Panthers off guard through the early stages.

“The jump serve kind of shook us a little bit, but if we would have been able to counter that a little bit better, I think we would have been able to hang in there a little bit,” said NRHEG junior setter Kacie Phillips, who finished with 25 assists.

The second set opened much like the first and the Giants reeled off nine consecutive points for a 9-1 early advantage with Shelly Blaschko serving.

With the Giants serving so well, it but NRHEG back on its heels. The Panthers weren’t able to establish much of a rhythm on offense and were unable to go on the attack.

“We received a lot of free balls because of it (the serving) or just offspeed shots as opposed to a big, hard hit,” said LeSueur-Henderson head coach Dave Nixon. “That helped get our offense going because it made it easier to play defense”

NRHEG did manage to find some offense in the second and third sets. Senior Alyssa Hagen had one of her best matches of the season and led the Panthers with 12 kills and went 10 for 10 serving. Sophomore Anna Schlaak had nine kills and was 9 for 9 serving.

“I really think when we got the ball on the outside to Anna, Hagen and Kaylee (Maxon), they put the ball away,” Schultz said.

But the hard-hitting duo of Hagen and Schlaak was held in check for much of the night by the Giants and their blockers. Kim Kuechle recorded five ace blocks and LeSueur-Henderson was able to get touches on Hagen and Schlaak spikes or find digs.

The strong serving and defense led to quick transitions for LeSueur-Henderson and its offense came from a variety of sources. Morgan Meger led the team with 11 kills while Kuechle and Gretta Schultz each had eight kills.

It was just the second subsection championship appearance for NRHEG and Phillips said the experience was good for the team, which loses just one senior starter in Hagen.

“It’s only going to help us in the offseason because we’ll know what to expect and we won’t be so blind going into it,” Phillips said.

The Giants move onto the section title game against Hutchinson, the fourth-ranked team in Class 2A.