AURORA—The Greenway High School girls Volleyball team had been working on their service game in the past two weeks.
That paid off on Thursday night as they collected a handful of Ace Serves on their way to a 3-0 win over Mesabi East, 25-20, 25-16, and 25-17.
“We have been working on our serves lately,” Head Coach Caci Richards said. “Tonight it really did pay off for us.”
Things really didn’t get off to a quick start for the Raiders.
In fact, Mesabi East raced out to a quick 5-1 lead, led by a Molly House Ace serve.
But the Raiders came right back and battled their way to tie the game at 9-9.
The teams then traded points until Greenway grabbed their first lead of the game, 12-11, forcing the Giants to take a time out.
Following the time out, Greenway went on a big scoring run and all of a sudden they led the game 19-14.
But Mesabi East was not going to just let the Raiders coast to a win.
House came up with a big Block at the net and Marta Forsline added an Ace Serve to make it just a one point Greenway lead.
The Giants tied the game at nineteen and the Raiders took a time out.
Following the time out, they coasted to a 24-20 lead and ended the opening game when Lydia Schwartz came up with a big Kill.
“We did what we had to do to end that first game,” Richards said. “It wasn’t a good start but we ended it real well.”
Game two was a different story.
Greenway trailed once the entire contest.
That was when Giants Sophomore Reese Heikkala collected a Kill to put Mesabi East up 4-3.
The Raiders got their lead back and coasted to a 7-4 lead and made it a four point lead when Ava Johnson collected an Ace Serve.
That forced the Giants to take a time out.
Following the time out, the Raiders collected another pair of points to make it a 9-4 lead.
The Giants stopped the scoring streak but only for a single point.
Greenway was right back at it when Schwartz collected another Kill.
The Raiders were not done yet.
They increased their lead up to six points before the Giants stopped the scoring streak.
Mesabi East got closer when Grace Paul collected an Ace Serve and House came up with a big Block at the net.
Greenway started another scoring run when Ari Johnson came up with a big kill at the net.
The Raiders then went on a four point scoring streak to grab a 16-9 lead.
The teams traded points and Greenway was able to coast to the eight point game victory.
“Game two was much better for us,” Richards said. “We did a lot of the little things that we have been working on and it paid off.”
The Raiders never trailed in game three.
The game was tied at 1-1 but went to Greenway the rest of the way.
They jumped out to a 9-4 lead.
Mesabi East fought back when House came up with a Kill and Greenway was caught hitting the ball four times to cut the lead to 9-6.
The teams traded points and as close as the Giants would get was when Forsline came up with a big Tip at the net to cut the Greenway lead to 12-10.
But the Raiders got hot at the net again and picked up back-to-back Kills from Sobtzak at the net and a Kill from Ari Johnson and all of a sudden it was a Greenway 21-11 lead.
The Giants were able to cut into lead when House came up with a big Kill and Rost came up with a Tip.
But the Raiders were just too far ahead,
They got the serve back and put the match away when Ava Johnson collected her tenthe Kill of the match.
Johnson added 11 Digs and four Ace Serves to lead the Raiders.
Ari Johnson added seven Kills while Schwartz tossed in six Kills and three Blocks.
Destiny Serfling had 23 Set Assists and six Digs.
Next up for the Raiders is the Mora Tournament on Saturday, where they will see some teams they may see in the playoffs.
Forsline led the Giants with seven Kills, three Ace Serves, and three Digs,
Paul collected one Ace Serve and eight Digs, while House had 3 Kills, two Ace Serves, and seven Digs.
The Giants travel to Deer River on Tuesday.
Local News
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