Varsity girls volleyball loses hotly contested match
Roseville Raiders lose at home vs. East Ridge Raptors
The Roseville Raiders varsity girls volleyball team put up a great effort against the visiting East Ridge Raptors on Sept. 29. Despite playing a very competitive match, Roseville lost in three sets 25-19, 25-20, 25-23 on Monday night. The Raiders fought back from deficits in each set, but could not deliver the knockout blow to the Raptors.
Led by some inspired efforts by Leah Biyadglign, Sam Bloomquist, and Whitney Walen, the young Raiders team overcame some service and reception errors to remain competitive throughout the entire match
Raiders Play Em’ Tough the Whole Match
The first set saw them fall behind 1-8, but they battled back to even the score before eventually coming up short. Whalen’s service aces got them back in this one as did the backcourt play of Stella Rivard, Sophia Gholson-Johnson, and Bloomquist.
The second set saw several long rallies with terrific digs by both squads.Bloomquist and Gholson-Johnson put up a wall and stopped numerous Raptor’s shots at the net.The Raiders took the lead at 20-19, but East Ridge served out to take the set.
The third set was a seesaw affair with Elsie Gruis delivering some savage kills at crucial moments for the Raiders. In the end, Roseville lost a heartbreaker 25-23, but the entire match demonstrated the grit and determination of this team.
Post-Match Interview
Raiders girls volleyball head coach Greg Ueland agreed to a postmatch interview with the Roseville Reader on Sept. 29. Here are excerpts from that interview.
The Roseville Reader: Coach, what did you tell your players at the end of the game?
Greg Ueland: “We talked about the fact that you can’t say that this team doesn't want it, and that they're such hard workers. They're great kids. We talked about how they give all of their heart and all of their body. We have to give all of our minds also.
And East Ridge is a phenomenal team that is so consistent and well coached and balanced and smart. And they execute so well. They really expose you if you don't have all your eggs in a row. And they exposed us, which is good, right? It's not fun, but hopefully we take it as a learning lesson. We've had a few too many of those this year. But the battle keeps going.”
TRR: This is a relatively young team. Have they played together for a while?
GU: “Well, good chunks of them have played together. We have quite a few veterans from last year's varsity team. We did lose some of our multi-year leader players, but we had a lot of veteran players return this season. But they're trying to gel and figure it out all together.”
TRR: What's the best part of coaching this team and what have you learned from this team?
GU: “The best part about coaching this team is they want to be coached and they are willing to be coached, and they're willing to do all the things necessary to improve. Now they have to believe in themselves a little bit more. I've learned a lot about coaching this year, probably more than I expected. I think you can't take anything for granted, and you've really got to lock in and be willing to adjust and adapt to your team and everything that's connected with that.
I've learned a lot, and kids are really resilient and tough. I think we talk so negatively about young people in our society and our culture, but these kids are tough. They want to be the best versions of themselves, and I'm reminded of that every year. I don't think that's a new learning this year, but just something I'm reminded of. It's a bit refreshing.”
TRR: Lastly, what do you take from this? What do you guys work on tomorrow?
GU: “Well, we come right back and have to play a match at Cottage Grove tomorrow. But I think we just have a lot to work on, including working on ourselves. We have to work on how we talk about ourselves and the confidence that we give to ourselves and put out there. But another standpoint is we have to execute. We have to learn why it seemed like one of the elements of our game was flowing, but not all of it together.”
Summary
Bloomquist led all Raiders players in the match with 11 kills. Whalen was number one on the team in serving percentage at 100% (9-9). Bloomquist also paced Roseville with three total blocks. And she was the leading Raider with 15 digs. Whalen dished out 20 assists, followed by Biyadglign with 15. And Stella Rivard returned a whopping 38 serves against East Ridge.
The Raiders record in matches last week was 1-2 as they defeated Park High School 3-0, but fell twice to East Ridge with each match ending with 0-3 Roseville loss. The Raiders next go on the road to play a non-conference match against the New Prague Trojans on Monday, October 6 at 7:00 pm.
Roseville has an overall record of 10-7 in 2025 and a conference record of 3-3.
For more stats and game schedules, visit the Raiders Volleyball website.
Greg Simbeck is a freelance writer who lives in Roseville, Minnesota. He has had 200 articles published on national sites including Yardbarker, WhoWhatWhy, and New Leaf News. He and his wife Mary Jo have lived in Roseville for over 17 years. He was previously a commissioner on the Roseville Parks and Recreation Commission and a board member of the Rice-Larpenteur Alliance.
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