Left: Sela Backstrom goes high into the air before spiking the volleyball in the match against the Marshall Hilltoppers. Top: Sophie Eliasen made a nice play to dig this ball off of the floor. Above: Wearing the libero white shirt is Hanna Borson, who bumped the ball to her front line.
The back-to-back defending Section 7A Cook County High School Viking volleyball team opened its 2017 season at home against the 2A Duluth Marshall Hilltoppers and lost three straight games, 25-14, 25-12, and 25-23.
The game was played Tuesday, August 29 in front of a packed house.
Duluth Marshall’s head volleyball coach knew exactly what to do when her Hilltopper team looked like it was going to let the third game slip away. She called back-to-back timeouts and settled her team down, and they prevailed 25-23 over a Viking team who had arisen from its deep sleep.
As a CCHS graduate and Viking great volleyball player, Duluth Marshall’s coach Christina (Tina) Nelson was well aware that if her team lost that third game, Taylor’s squad could very well come all of the way back and win the match. If that sounds improbable, it didn’t look unlikely to those on hand who were watching.
Marshall was led by senior Kate Kleinschmidt, an athletic 6’2” outside hitter who slammed ball after ball by the Vikings. Kleinschmidt recorded 22 kills on the day. Meanwhile, the Vikings had trouble getting their offense going, although when the ball was set well to Meredith Sutton, she delivered with a devastating spike of her own.
For the Vikings, the first two games were all but forgettable. The Vikings didn’t communicate well on the court, didn’t move their feet, reached for balls instead of getting in front of them and Marshall found crater-size holes to dink the ball into when Kleinschmidt wasn’t spiking.
Early in the third game, the Vikings took their only lead of the night, 6-5, before Marshall went on a long run and led 19-10. Just when it looked like the match was going to end quickly, Sutton went on the attack and spiked the ball past the Hilltoppers. Even though Kleinschmidt came right back with a kill of her own, the Vikings were energized and began to rally.
Marshall turned the ball over on a missed serve to make the score 20-12, but a kill by Hilltopper Maggie Landherr put the score 21-12. When the score was 22-14, Sutton came to the serving line, and the game turned topsy-turvy for Marshall as the Vikings began to right their ship.
Sutton served until the score was tied 22-22. During that run Nelson called a time out. Marshall finally won a point to make it 24-22, but the Vikings got the next point before Nelson again called a time out to settle her team down. Kleinschmidt ended the game with a final big spike to seal the win and Nelson can say she beat her high school coach in what may be their only meeting on the court. This is coach Taylor’s final year on the bench for the Vikings.
Sutton ended her night with 11 kills. Abby Prom finished with 16 set assists, and Alyssa Lashinski had 17 digs.
Next up is a trip to Barnum on Thursday, Aug. 31. Following that game, the Vikings travel to Esko on Sept. 7 before having a home game on Tuesday, September 12 against Mountain Iron-Buhl. The game will start at 6:30 p.m.
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