Lady Norse down Cardinals in four

HIBBING—It was their first match in two seasons, but the Minnesota North-Hibbing volleyball team left an impression on Sara Matuszak.

The Minnesota North-Mesabi Range coach had seen the Cardinals two weeks ago at a scrimmage in Grand Rapids, then she saw them again Wednesday.

There was a lot of improvement over that two-week span, but the experience of the Lady Norse was too much to overcome as Minnesota North-Hibbing fell 3-1, 25-23, 23-25, 25-22, 25-22 in a Northern Division clash at Dick Varichak Gymnasium.

Matuszak was impressed with the play of the Cardinals.

“We saw Hibbing a couple of weeks ago in a scrimmage and the Hibbing team from a couple weeks ago to today was way different,” Matuszak said. “They played hard defensively. We didn’t get many points on kills. They were digging up everything.

“We got points off of their errors, honestly, because they were digging up all of our attacks. I was impressed with Hibbing’s defense. I’m glad they’re back. They haven’t had volleyball in a couple of years, so we’re excited to have them back in the Northern Division.”

Minnesota North-Hibbing coach Travis Vake agreed that his teams’ errors were a critical component of the match.

“I would say we beat ourselves,” Vake said. “We preach to them that errors are what is going to lose us games. We made too many, but we did some positive things, too. We’re brand new. We have the program back.

“This is the first game in two years against Mesabi. They were ready to go. Mentally, we’re not quite there, but we’ll get there.”

In set one, the Cardinals ralllied from a five-point deficit to make it nip and tuck through a majority of the match, but Minnesota North-Mesabi Range prevailed at the end.

“Game one always matters,” Matuszak said. “That sets the tone. That was extremely important for us. I would have liked to have gotten out of game two, too”

In set two, Minnesota North-Hibbing rallied from a three-point deficit, 23-20, to even the match at one apiece.

“I would say that offensively that was our best set,” Vake said. “We can’t win off of playing defense all of the time. Right now, we’re searching for an outside and a right side who’s going to come in and provide us with that offense.”

Sets three and four were both tight the whole way, but they Lady Norse made fewer mistakes to pull out the wins.

Even so, Matuszak got a good look at her team, and found out what they need to do to have a successful season.

“We need to work on terminating the ball,” Matuszak said. “The last two years I’ve had an All-American middle hitter. You would get in a volley like those that go back and forth, you would set it to her, and she would terminate a point.

“I don’t have that. We’re working on offense. I think we did well defensively, and we served received well. We were almost perfect in serve receive. That’s what kept us in the game. Hats off to Hibbing.”

For the Cardinals, it came down to too many unforced errors in sets three and four, and getting timid at the net.

“Sometimes, we have a lack of communication,” Vake said. “We work hard at practice, but there are times when we don’t communicate and we let the ball drop between us, which should never happen.

“Once we develop a little more chemistry, a little bit more of owning the floor, we’ll be OK. We would rather have them swing hard and hit the ball out-of-bounds, then tip the ball over. We want them to be an offensive threat all of the time. We just kept tipping. On defense, when we get a free ball, we can’t free it back to them. You can’t do that. We’ll get there. They did a lot of good things.”

Even in defeat, Vake found a lot of positives from a team that was put together this season.

“Kallie (Richards) was spectacular tonight in the middle and Jaicee (Koehler), she does her blocking,” Vake said. “She was a little better offensively. We all have room to improve. We all have room to grow, but we need to be more than one-dimensional.

“If we’re one-dimensional, teams will start blocking differently. They started covering the top when Chloe was hitting. Coaches adapt to that. We have to be multi-dimensional. It’s only game one. We’ll be alright.”

Katie Peck had 19 kills, 17 digs, three aces and two blocks for Minnesota North-Mesabi Range. Ashley Dahl had nine kills, 12 digs and two aces; Aiesah Benner had five kills and two aces; and Talia Goodsky had 34 assists and 10 digs.