Above: Making a nice set on the ball is Tarin Hanson (No. 6). Left: Meredith Sutton soars high like an angry bird, as she gets ready to put more than a little “heat” on this spike.
Like every week during the volleyball season, the Vikings had a very busy schedule, playing two games on the road and one at home.
Cook County lost a thriller to the mighty 2A Esko Eskimos on Thursday, September 8 in front of a large cheering home crowd, falling in five games.
It was a seesaw match that saw the 2015 defending Polar League champion Vikings put everything on the line as they tried to exact back-to-back wins over a school that has more than twice as many students as Cook County High School.
The Vikings lost the opening game 25-16 before coming back to win the next two games 25-10, 25-20 and then falling in games four and five 25-17, 15-8.
“We were out of rotation twice in the match and that cost us,” said Head Coach Pam Taylor. “We are improving each week and finding out who fits in best in certain situations on the court. I have to say that I liked the way our team competed. They never gave up.”
Meredith Sutton led the way with 17 kills and 35 digs. Tarin Hanson had 36 set assists and Raina Ryden had 30 digs for the Vikings.
Hannah Stark led Esko with 12 kills.
Vikings thump Mesabi East
The Vikings traveled to Aurora to face the usually tough Mesabi East Giants on Monday, September 12 and came away with a big victory, beating the Giants three straight games 25-11, 25-15, and 25-19 to take the best out of five games match.
Raina Ryden finished with 19 digs, Alyssa Lashinski 9 kills and Meredith Sutton 15 kills.
After a 2½-hour bus ride home it was time for the Vikings to get a brief rest, get up, go to classes for most of the day and then get on the bus again and head to Mountain Iron-Buhl.
Mountain Iron-Buhl
On Tuesday, September 13, the tired but resilient Vikings traveled to Mountain Iron-Buhl to play the Rangers on their home court and won (25-22, 25-20, 14-25, 27-25) to take home a tough, hardearned victory.
“We were clearly tired but the kids fought hard and we hung on to take the victory over a very strong MIB team,” said Coach Taylor.
The Vikings’ talented junior outside hitter Meredith Sutton had a monster game, filling up the stat sheet with 25 kills, 30 digs and four ace serves. Tarin Hanson also had a great game with 44 set assists and Raina Ryden came up big with 33 digs. Reilly Wahlers also finished with 13 kills.
Patty Overbye led the Rangers with 26 set assists and 11 digs.
The Vikings play their next four games on the road before coming home on Thursday, September 22 to face the South Ridge Panthers at 6:30 p.m. Come out and cheer on your Vikings!
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