13 October 2023
East Ridge laid claim to the outright Suburban East Conference volleyball crown in impressive fashion, sweeping its closest challenger Stillwater on Thursday night in Woodbury.
East Ridge carried a 7-0 league mark into the match and Stillwater was 6-1, but the match seemed well in hand from start to finish for the hosts, who won 25-12, 25-11, 25-19. Stillwater held a lead in the third set until about the midpoint but couldn’t hang on long enough.
East Ridge head coach Steve Anderson said his players did not come into the game underestimating their opponents.
“I think we came into the game confident in ourselves, but I also think we respected Stillwater,” Anderson said. “They’ve had a great season, they’re very capable. It usually comes down to us and them, for the last however many years. I mean, we were confident, but there’s also a lot of respect. we don’t take them lightly.”
Anderson said the conference title was a team goal, but the Raptors still have challenges ahead as the playoffs approach.
“At the start of the year, it’s always the goal to win conference; it’s important to us,” Anderson said. “There’s a few teams in this conference who have been to state the last couple of years, so we take a lot of pride in that. We have a big, big tournament this weekend at Lakeville North. So it’s a good chance for us to go into sections on a high note and see where we’re at against some of the best teams in the state.”
Stillwater head coach Sara Baumgard gave props to East Ridge and said that as her team gets closer to playoff time, games like this are going to be valuable in seeing how the team stacks up against tougher competition.
“East Ridge is a team that has gone to state the past few years,” Baumgard said. “That’s a level of competition that we want to see how we stack up against. Because, hopefully, that’s the level we’ll be playing against. Honestly, I think it was the kick in the pants that we needed that our game isn’t fast enough in order to compete with teams like that. So in the playoffs, we need to be faster, we need to be better.”