MOUNTAIN IRON—Suffering a season-opening loss to North Woods on Monday night, the Mountain Iron-Buhl volleyball team had little time to regroup with game No. 2 coming 24 hours later.
The Rangers played host to International Falls and new head coach Jessica Trunnell was hoping to see a response from her team following Monday’s loss. When all was said and done, Trunnell couldn’t have asked for a better answer as MI-B downed the Broncos in straight sets 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-21).
When it came to breaking down the differences from the loss on Monday compared to Tuesday’s win, Trunnell said one thing that stood out to her the most was communication.
“I really liked the way we were talking to each other out on the court,” Trunnell said. “It was so much better than last night. They’re calling where the hits are coming from, whether it’s cross court or at an angle, and that’s really helping the girls know where they have to cover. The communication is huge in volleyball and the girls brought it tonight.”
The opening set was a back and forth affair between both squads as MI-B and International Falls each had to find their footing. After trading some early errors, the Broncos got up to an early 3-1 lead when Neva Kokesh served up an ace. After a point from Charley Swanson and a kill from Payton Grashom, International Falls had taken a 6-2 lead.
The Rangers trailed by about three or four points for a lot of the set, until a kill from Ava Luukkonen gave MI-B some energy and cut the deficit to two, 10-8. After a Bronco hitting error, Luukkonen served up an ace to make it a one-point game and the Rangers tied things up winning a tip battle at the net, 13-13.
The teams traded the lead back and forth for the remainder of the set, but a late kill from Luukkonen knotted things at 21. The Rangers were able to sprint to the finish line from there, getting a kill from Anna Holmstrom and an ace from Luukkonen to close things out, 25-22.
Surviving an up and down first set, Trunnell said after the match that it was solid serving from her squad along with consistent setting from junior Aniyah Thomas to the hitter Luukkonen that helped her team get over the hump.
“We didn’t have many missed serves at all so we were limiting those mistakes and not giving up a lot of free points. Then with the setting, Aniyah does a really great job of setting up the girls in our front row. When Ava is in the middle and Aniyah can set her up, she really just kills it for us. I think with all that combined, I couldn’t have asked for much more and we fought to stay alive in that set.”
The Rangers had the momentum on their side in the second set and went out to an early 6-2 lead. Holmstrom had an early kill, as did Luukkonen but some strong serving from Nevaeh Locken and Luukkonen helped build that early lead as well.
The Broncos managed to cut the deficit to just one but a series of four straight errors from International Falls put MI-B back up by five, forcing a timeout from Broncos coach Erin Hall. Out of the break, the Rangers stretched the lead out to nine with Locken grabbing a kill and Brenna Tiedeman serving up an ace, 15-6.
International Falls found a second gear in the set and managed to cut the deficit down to three, forcing Trunnell to take a timeout with her team leading 19-16. In the huddle, the message to her squad was clear.
“They had to stay in the game mentally. The mental aspect of volleyball is huge and if you’re losing it, then your serve is going to be off, you’re going to shank balls. Everything is going to go wrong. We needed to refocus and get back into it mentally.”
The Rangers did manage to hang on as three late kills from Luukkonen helped seal the set, 25-21. In addition to the junior’s heroics, Trunnell complimented her team’s active bench for helping keep the energy up.
“They were a huge part of that too. If you can get that bench involvement and get them fired up, it’ll really help the girls on the court.”
The Rangers played the majority of the third set from behind but they never let things get too far out of hand. Trailing 14-9, Trunnell took one more time out for her squad and they quickly turned things around. With a Luukkonen kill sending Locken to the service line, the junior served up four aces over the next five points to put the Rangers on top, 15-14.
After the lead changed hands once more, it was more strong serving—this time from eighth grader Farrah Thomas—that helped guide MI-B to victory. Seeing the varsity court for the first time that night, Thomas was a consistent cog in the machine to the Rangers late run, allowing them to claw back from a late 20-16 deficit.
Eventually going up 22-21, MI-B closed out the game with a block from Izzy Wiita and one more kill from Locken to finish it off, 25-21. After the game, Trunnell had high praise for the younger Thomas in helping secure the win.
“I love that we have an awesome player like Farrah who can come in off the bench. She plays JV and varsity so she’s seeing a lot of court time but she’s my next player up and there’s going to be times where we need her. She came in clutch tonight. She had some amazing serves and I couldn’t ask for anything more from her.”
Through two games, Trunnell is seeing some good progress out of her squad. On a team with no seniors, it’ll be a group of juniors setting the tone with a large number of younger players filling the gaps.
“We’re a young team and we knew that coming into this year. It’s tough when you don’t have any seniors but I’m blessed to have an eighth grader and a seventh grader who can step onto the varsity court. They’ve had to do a lot for us in just these first two games but they’ve really made a world of difference. They’re helping build that cohesion on the team and I think it was clear tonight that all the girls were supporting each other out there. That’s what I saw tonight.”
Mountain Iron-Buhl (1-1) returns to action on Tuesday when they travel to Floodwood.
Ely 3,
Greenway 0
COLERAINE—The Ely volleyball team made it 2-0 on the season Tuesday with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-17) sweep over hosting Greenway.
Audrey Kallberg led the offensive attack for the Timberwolves with 15 kills. She added nine digs, an ace serve and a block. Lilli Rechichi tallied nine kills and led the team in digs with 19. She added an ace.
Charlotte Hegman and Clare Thomas added five kills apiece. Gretta Lowe commanded the floor with 31 set assists to go with two ace serves. Peyton Huntington finished the evening with 12 digs. Sadie Rechichi added two aces. Lydia Shultz had a pair of kills and a block.
For the Raiders, Ava Johnson led the team in kills with eight to go with eight digs. Makenna Sobztak added four kills and two blocks and Ari Johnson had four kills. Chloe Troumbly tallied six digs, Ava Martella five digs and Sophia DeNucci four digs.
Greenway is back on the court Thursday when they travel to Walker-Hackensack-Akeley and Ely volleyball returns to action Tuesday when they host Littlefork-Big Falls.
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