While Breanna Peterson (foreground) and Anna Carmen (No. 5) watch, Sarah Deschampe takes a hard serve and bumps it to the front line to set up a play in the Vikings’ game against the Duluth Marshall Hilltoppers. The Vikings beat the Hilltoppers 3 games to 1 in their season opener.
Up 11-1 in their first game of the season opener against the Duluth Marshall Hilltoppers last Thursday, August 29, it looked like the Cook County Viking volleyball team was going to win easily in Coach Pam Taylor’s return to the bench following a long series of treatments for breast cancer.
Fairy tales do come true, right?
Maybe not.
The first game didn’t turn out like it started, as Marshall dug in and spiked its way back into the game, eventually tying the score at 16 all before going ahead to win 25-23.
There was tension in the gym. Maybe the glass slippers wouldn’t fit. Marshall, behind big hitters Briana Anderson and Gabriellai Igboko, gained a lot of confidence in that first game against the smaller Vikings who looked like they were on their heels and somewhat in disarray, especially when the Hilltoppers went up 5-1 to start the second game.
Then a couple of things happened. Wearing No. 7, sophomore Linden Sutton started controlling the play and as good as she was at the net, she might have been better with her hard, well-placed serves, which were very tough for the Hilltopper players to return.
Left: Breanna Peterson never served better, going a perfect 28- 28 against the Hilltoppers. Above: Linden Sutton had one of her best games ever as a Viking with 18 kills. Here she sets up a teammate as Maddy Roy looks on.
Still, no one player can win a game, and Sutton, who filled up the stat sheet with 18 kills and 9 assists had plenty of help as the Vikings went on to take the next 3 games: 25-18, 25-14 and 25-18.
Senior Jessica Berg-Collman ended her night with 13 serve assists (SA) while senior Breanna Peterson was 28/28 serving and had a great allaround game. Madison Roy had 13 serve assists and 10 digs, while fellow starters Anna Carman, Carrie Palmer, Megan Lehto, Morgan Mixdorf, Sarah Deschampe, and Jamie Sjogren all at times shined on the court with great plays.
Marshall’s Igboko ended her night with 6 kills while Anderson had 9 kills and Maddie Schenk finished with 17 serve assists, 5 assists.
For the Vikings and Coach Taylor it was a triumphant night. Maybe not the stuff of fairy tales, but they proved that sometimes, with a little work, you can make that glass slipper fit.
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