After winning their match against Marshall the Vikings celebrated quickly before congratulating their foes on a tough match. All of the games were close and while the Vikings swept the Hilltoppers in three games the Marshall players fought hard and kept things interesting. Here Bekah Laky (11) hugs Ali Iverson while CeCe Olsen, Theresa Morrin, Ashley Deshampe (5) and Sarah Fagerman (6), join in the celebration.
For the second straight year, the Cook County Viking volleyball team will take the No. 1 seed into the Section 7A playoffs. Last year, they rode that advantage to the Section Championship game where they were upended by the Cherry Tigers. This year the Vikings are looking for similar results throughout the tourney with a better outcome.
The Vikings first had to finish off their regular season with a tough match up with a much-improved Two Harbors team. The Vikings downed the Agates in a very tight match on their way to the tournament championship at the Two Harbors tournament earlier in the season. The bigger Agates couldn’t keep up with the quick hitting of the Vikings and the Vikes quickly built a 2-0 game advantage. They took the first game 25-19 and wrapped up the second game in similar fashion, 25-20.
This is where things got interesting. The Vikings began having communication problems and it cost them dearly. They lost the third game 20-25 before faltering in the fourth game 23-25. Coach Pam Taylor said, “The girls just stopped talking. They ran into a communication problem and there were balls falling that shouldn’t have and normally wouldn’t.”
With Bekah Laky (11) looking on Theresa Morrin went up high to spike this ball against Marshall on Wednesday, October 26. The Vikings beat Marshall in three straight games to advance in the playoffs to face Silver Bay at Hermantown on Friday, October 28.
The Vikings regrouped in the fifth game to jump out to a nice lead. Playing in the rally system of going up to 15, the Vikings’ serves were crucial and they put them in when they needed to. Senior leader Bekah Laky was a stabilizing force on the court and led the Vikes to a big 15-10 win. The 3-2 victory puts the Vikings at 18-2 heading into the playoffs, but there is still a lot of work to be done before then.
The first game is on Wednesday against Duluth Marshall (already played when this went to press) and if they win they would play at Hermantown versus the winner of the Silver Bay/Cromwell game at 6:00 on Friday, October 28.
Leave a Reply