VIRGINIA—The Rock Ridge Volleyball team took care of business on Thursday night, hosting Mesabi East.
The Wolverines took advantage of their height and closed it out for a 3-0 win, by scores 25-14, 25-21, and 25-17 in US Steel Gymnasium at Rock Ridge High School.
“I like how we played tonight and everybody got in there and got their chance to play,” Wolverines Coach Amy Kvaternik said. “When Mesabi East took a run at us in the second game we came back and played hard and got the lead back.
Rock Ridge jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in game one with Taylor Morley coming up with a Kill and Kylie Marolt adding one of her own.
A service error stopped the scoring run.
Rock Ridge then hit one out of bounds to make it a two point game.
The Giants then made it a 4-3 contest when Reese Heikkala came up with a Tip at the net.
The Wolverines then got hot with Anna Westby in the front row.
The Senior came up with a Tip to make it 7-3 and followed that up with a big Block at the net .
The Giants stopped the run to make it a 8-4 contest.
Zoey Thyen then came up with a Kill to increase the Wolverines lead to 9-4.
Another Wolverines point forced Giants head Coach Sara Baribeau to take one of her time outs.
Following the time out Rock Ridge added to their lead when Nola Kwiatkowski picked up an Ace Serve and Westby followed that up with a monster Kill at the net to make it 12-4.
A Wolverines service error stopped the run.
But they came right back and got the serve when Thyen collected another Kill.
Rock Ridge then opened up the game when Westby picked up another Tip and Mesabi East caught in the net twice.
But the Giants were not just going to go away quietly.
Bianca Dahl picked up back-to-back points for Mesabi East when she collected a Kill and a Tip.
But the Wolverines were just too far ahead in the game.
A Aubrey Cherrington Ace Serve and a Morley Kill put the Wolverines one point away from the game win.
They closed out the game when a Mesabi East return went out of bounds.
Game two was a different story.
Mesabi East grabbed an early 4-3 early lead when Miikah Honkala picked a pair of Ace Serves and a Rock Ridge hit out of bounds gave the Giants a lead.
Rock Ridge tied the game at 4-4 but Mesabi East was not done scoring.
Lacie Carlson came up with a Kill and Heikkila had a Block at the net.
The teams then traded points until Rock Ridge was able to tie the game at 15-15 and grabbed a lead when Brynn Rozinka collected an Ace Serve.
Mesabi East then took a time out.
They battled to stay in the game as the teams traded points.
Rock Ridge held a one point lead until a Westby Kill gave them a 23-21 lead.
The Wolverines collected two more points and closed out the game with the four point win.
“We played so much better in the second game,” Baribeau said. “They are so tough in the front row and we battled with them.”
Rock Ridge exploded for 13 early points in game three.
Westby was at the net and the Giants just could not stop her.
Following the scoring run, Kavternik was able to get all of her players into the contest.
“I wanted everybody to get some playing time and they did,” Kvaternik said.
Westby closed out the match with 10 Kills, while Morley added six.
Cherrington ended the match with three Kills, 2 Ace Serves, and 19 Set Assists.
Rock Ridge has a tough week coming up.
“We travel to Greenway on Monday, Grand Rapids on Tuesday, and host Marshall in our last regular season home game on Thursday,” Kvaternik said. “We will have to be ready, all three nights.”
Honkola led the Giants with four Ace Serves while Heikkila added two Ace Serves, 3 Kills, and six Digs.
Grace Paul collected 16 Digs and 2 Kills.
The Giants are in action today, hosting the Mesabi East Tournament.
Northeast Range 3,
Hill City/Northland 2
HILL CITY—The Northeast Range volleyball team was pushed to five sets, but managed to pull out a win in the end as they took down Hill City/Northland 3-2 (25-23, 25-17, 20-25, 13-25, 15-13).
Else Bee led the offensive attack for the Nighthawks with 14 kills to go with six digs in the back. Freshman Peyson Roseth tallied 10 kills, a block and seven digs. Maizy Sundblad added seven kills and 27 set assists. Kaydence Hancock finished with six kills.
Northeast Range is back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Cherry.
Local News
Comments / 0