Storm regroup to down Rangers, 3-1

MOUNTAIN IRON—The Mountain Iron-Buhl volleyball team ran into a red-hot server on Tuesday night in their match against Hill City/Northland.

Senior Bella Dunham collected 9 Ace Serves and when she was in the front row, she was able to pick up 9 Kills.

That all led to the Storm coming away with a 3-1 win over the Rangers, 18-25, 25-21, 25-13, and 25-21.

“She really came up with a big night,” Storm coach Stacey Wake said. “She was the leader tonight.”

Mountain Iron-Buhl picked up the win in the opening game.

The Rangers raced out to a 4-0 lead, taking advantage of some Hill City/Northland mishits at the net.

The Storm did come back when Dunham was in the front row and came back to tie the game at 4-4.The teams traded points until the Storm grabbed their first lead of the game at 10-9.

They picked up one more point to make it a two point lead but the Rangers came back strong.

Trailing by three points, MIB got a Ava Luukkonen Ace Serve, an Aniyah Thomas Kill, and another Luukkonen Ace Serve gave the Rangers a 16-15 lead.

The teams traded points and the game was then tied at 18-18 when the Rangers took total control of the game and scored seven straight points to win the game.

“We did what we had to do when we fought back and got the lead,” Rangers Coach Jessica Trunnell said. “We just couldn’t keep it going.”

The Rangers came out firing in the second game and had an early 10-6 lead and forced Wake to take a time out.

Following the time out it was a different Storm squad.

They exploded for four quick points to make it a one point contest.

The teams traded points and with the game tied at 13-13, that is when Dunham was back on the service line.

She collected three more Ace Serves and her teammates added two more points and it was a 18-13 Storm lead before the Rangers could stop the run.

MIB tried to stay close in the game and cut the Hill City/Northland lead to two points when Luukkonen came up with a big Kill.

The teams traded points and the Rangers got within one point when Luukkonen collected an Ace of her own to make it a 21-20 Storm led.

But that would be as close as MIB would get and the Storm scored four points to close out the game and tie the match at 1-1.

Game three saw Dunham have another big game.

She opened up the serving for the Storm and while she was serving, Hill City/Northland scored eight straight points.

Three of the points coming off Ace serve from Dunham.

The Rangers were finally able to stop the scoring run but would not able to get close to the Storm.

“We just didn’t serve the ball well tonight,” Trunnell said. “Every time we had a chance to get close to them we just didn’t get our serves over the net.”

As close as the Rangers would get in the game was when Thomas came up with a nice Kill and Luukkonen also added a Kill of her own.

But the Storm just ran away from them and coasted to the 12 point victory.

Game four saw the Storm grab a quick 2-0 lead when Dunham collected two more Ace Serves.

But the Rangers were not going to just go away quietly.

Brenna Tiedeman came up with a big Ace serve and Luukkonen had another Kill and all of a sudden, it was a 5-4 contest.

The teams continued to trade points until the Rangers tied the game at 9-9 and forcing Wake to take a time out.

Coming out of the time out the Rangers were able to grab the lead at 11-10 and added to the lead when Thomas came up with a big block at the net to make it 12-10, MIB.

The Storm battled back and tied the game at 13-13 when Ashlyn Schwarz collected a pair of Ace Serves.

Trunnell had to take one of her time outs to settle down her squad.

That did work, as the Rangers came back and tied the game at 18-18.

“They battled out there,” Trunnell said. “They didn’t give up.”

The Storm collected a pair of Kills from Maelee Peterson to give them a 21-20 lead.

The teams traded points because of service errors, but a pair of Rangers hits out of bounds closed out the match.

Taylor Washburn closed out the match for the Storm with 5 Kills and 13 Set Assists to help out Dunham.

The Storm will host Northeast Range on Thursday.

Luukkonen led the Rangers with 11 Kills, three Ace Serves, and five Digs.

Sophia Gellerstedt collected 16 Digs, while Thomas had 8 set assists and five digs.

MIB will host Deer River on Thursday.

Ely 3,

North Woods 1

COOK—The North Woods volleyball team managed to take one set from the two-time defending Section 7A champions, but the Ely Timberwolves proved to be too much as they downed the Grizzlies 3-1 (25-13, 22-25, 25-16, 25-23).

Audrey Kallberg led for Ely with 17 kills to go with four blocks and 14 digs. Lilli Rechichi added 16 kills, four blocks and a team-high 21 digs. Clare Thomas finished with nine kills and 13 digs. Gretta Lowe put up 47 set assists in the win. Thomas and Rechichi added two ace serves apiece.

Statistics for North Woods were not made available to the Mesabi Tribune.

Both teams are in action this weekend at the Mesabi East tournament.