Emotions ran high for the CCHS volleyball team following their game 2 win against South Ridge. Although the Vikings didn’t win the match, they did give the very tough Panther team a good run for their money.
It looked like it was going to be a quick night of volleyball for the Cook County High School Vikings as they were beat 25-9 in their opening game against the South Ridge Panthers in a match played at home on Thursday, October 2.
The Panthers are the only conference team to beat 3A Esko in the last few years, so the Vikings knew that they had their hands full.
The hot serving, big spiking, Panthers pretty much blew the Vikings out in that opening game, but during game 2 the Vikings settled down and began adjusting their defense and passed the ball better.
With the score 8-8 the Panthers went on a 3-point run and it looked like it might be a repeat of game 1, but the Panthers’ junior outside hitter Krystal Karppinen sprained her ankle when the score was tied 12 all and would not return for the rest of the night.
The Vikings stayed within 3 points of the Panthers until tying it up again 16-16. The teams continued to trade leads until the Vikings went up 21-19 on a big spike from Linden Sutton.
Before the game against South Ridge five seniors were honored for their dedication to CCHS volleyball. (L-R) Morgan Mixdorf, Jami Sjogren, Britta Andress, Carrie Palmer and Selien Morawitz.
South Ridge Coach Brad Olesiak called a time-out to settle his team down and the Panthers soon knotted the score at 22 all. But the Vikings came right back behind a Britta Andress block for the 24th point and an Andress spike to take the game 25-23 to even the match 1-1.
The last two games were as exciting as any played in Grand Marais in the last few years. Players on both sides were hitting the floor more than a janitor’s mop trying to save the ball, but South Ridge was a little bit better in their passing game.
South Ridge went up 15-7 in the third game and kept the Vikings at bay, winning 25-17.
Game 4 was tight for the first half of play; the Vikings were down 9-12 when South Ridge went on a 6-point run to go up 18-9. Although the Vikings played hard, the Panthers’ power hitting duo of Justice Janke and Mallory Thibault were a bit too much and the Vikings fell 25-17 to lose 3-1.
Linden Sutton led the Vikings with 22 digs and 5 kills. Meredith Sutton finished with 18 digs and 9 kills, Carrie Palmer finished with 15 digs, Jamie Sjogren 13 digs, and Britta Andress had 4 kills and 7 solo blocks.
In the Vikings’ game against South Ridge Alex Slanga (8) set a ball to Britta Andress in the front row while Lily Gruber-Schulz (10) looked on.
Five Viking seniors Morgan Mixdorf, Jami Sjogren, Carrie Palmer, Britta Andress and Selien Morawitz were honored before the game for their dedication to CCHS volleyball. The seniors and the team have three more games on the road to finish out regular season play.
Head Coach Pam Taylor took her talented volleyball team to the Two Harbors tournament on Saturday, October 4, and the Vikings responded with a first place finish in the six-team event. The teams that took part were Two Harbors, Silver Bay, Eveleth-Gilbert, Proctor, Denfeld, and Cook County.
The Vikings played Proctor in the first match, winning two close games 25-23, 25-22. Britta Andress had 5 kills while Linden and Meredith Sutton each finished with 4 kills.
Next up the Vikings faced the Silver Bay Mariners for the third time this season, and for the third time beat the rapidly improving Mariners 25-12, 25-23. Meredith Sutton finished with 6 kills and Linden 5 kills in that match, which led to the championship game against defending champion Denfeld.
In a David versus Goliath match, David won. Although Denfeld High School is four times larger than Cook County High School, the Vikings’ showed the Hunters that a small school can beat a large school as the Vikings swept the Hunters 25-14, 25-23.
Once again the Vikings’ big front line of Britta (5 kills) Meredith (7 kills) and Linden (4 kills) led the Vikings to victory.
“Since this was tournament everyone played, so even with the close scores I was pleased that we fought to finish the games,” said Taylor. “Everyone is stepping up and playing hard.
“Hopefully this tournament has given the girls the confidence in themselves going into the playoffs in a couple of weeks. I am proud of all of them. It’s a great group of girls to be working with.”
Vikings beat Floodwood 3-1
The Vikings’ match against Floodwood on Tuesday, October 7 wasn’t pretty. “It was an ugly game with 88 total errors,” said Coach Pam Taylor.
Ugly or not, the Vikings came away with a 3-1 victory after losing game one 25-23. The Vikings won game two 30-28, game three 25-21, and took the fourth game 25-22. Taylor said her team had problems in all phases of the game “serving, hitting, passing, digging, blocking and setting.”
Meredith Sutton led the team with 12 kills, Linden Sutton finished with 11 kills, Britta Andress had 9 kills and 4 solo blocks and Alex Slanga had 17 set assists.
“We had an awful time passing the ball, finishing with 35 hitting errors and 27 passing errors,” said Taylor.
The Vikings finish the regular season on the road with games against McGregor (October 9) and Cromwell on October 14 before heading into the playoffs. The teams overall record is now 13-6 on the season. Go Vikings!
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