Top: With Sarah Deschampe watching, Megan Lehto bumped the ball to one of her front court teammates. Above: Lexi Palmer set the ball nicely on this play and had a good all around game against Wrenshall. Left: Going up high and with the eye of the tiger, Stephanie Lashinski spiked the ball back against Wrenshall.
Blink.
About one blink of the eye was all it took for the unbeaten Carlton Bulldogs to go up 14-0 against the Cook County High School Vikings last Thursday night, September 20 at home.
Forgive the girls’ volleyball team if they were suffering some fatigue. It was the Vikings’ third match in four days, and fourth match in seven days. And it showed.
Carlton won the first game 25-10, and although the Vikings played much better the second and third games, even going up 5-0 to start the third game, they were never able to sustain their offense long enough to get a win, and were swept 25-17 and 25-19.
Macy Belich recorded 12 kills and led Carlton. Ali Iverson led the Vikings with about a dozen kills.
While the Bulldogs stayed in position and played good, fundamental volleyball, the Vikings were out of sync and once again not talking on the court. When a serve or a long hit was headed out of bounds, everyone on Carlton’s team would yell, “out of bounds” and the player the ball was coming toward would step out of the way. Too often Viking players tried to return shots or serves that would have gone long and scored for the Vikings if teammates had made the call. On this night they were all a little tired and not playing their A game.
“I will give the girls credit. They came back and competed during the last two games. It’s not a lack of talent. We have enough talent to compete with most anybody. It’s desire. They have to want to compete,” said Head Coach Pam Taylor.
“And, again, we just aren’t communicating out there. The girls need to start talking to each other, helping each other out on the court. Pretending that they like each other. They need to move their feet and not stand and watch. One mom said that if the girls could text each other [on the court] there wouldn’t be any problem with communications at all,” Taylor said wryly.
Vikings win one, lose two in Hill City tournament
The Vikings traveled to Hill City to play in the Hill City tournament on Saturday, September 22, and hoped to defend their two-year championship run, but it was not to be.
“We beat Northland then lost to McGregor in 3 games and Ely in 3 games and ended up fourth out of 8 teams,” said Coach Taylor.
“Right now we are lacking in confidence and mental toughness. We could play with those teams, but mentally we couldn’t stay in the games,” Taylor said.
While no stats were available Taylor said her team is still serving in the mid 80s and needs to improve into the 90s. She also said the line-up would continue to change.
“We are going to keep shaking things up until we find the right combination. Right now we are not playing to our potential. We will keep striving for that.”
Vikings beat Wrenshall
Ali Iverson had 7 kills and 11 digs and 6 assists and Anna Carman had 10 digs to help lead the team to a conference win over the Wrenshall Wrens on Tuesday, September 25. The game was played at home in front of a large supportive crowd.
Both teams traded points early and seemed pretty evenly matched. With the score tied at 11-11, the Vikings went on a 5-point run to take a 16-11 lead and break the game open, winning 25-15.
The second game was much like the first, except neither team could make a run. Wrenshall led 21-18 before the Vikings came back to score 3 points and tie the score. With the game on the line the Vikings took a 24-23 lead and needed one point to win but couldn’t quite do it as Wrenshall scored the next 3 points to win 26-24. Teams have to win by 2 points, so that is why the winning score was 26, and not 25.
Game 3 was all Vikings, with the team racing off to an 11-2 lead, then continuing to put pressure on Wrenshall with good all around play at the net, backcourt, and serving. The Vikings waltzed to a win 25-9.
Game 4 was exciting, with both teams making great plays on the court. The score was 17-14 in favor of the Vikings when Megan Lehto came up to serve and Wrenshall stood ready to take advantage of any Vikings’ miscues. Lehto wound up hitting 7 serves that were either aces or were hit so hard that the defensive players couldn’t handle them. She even completed a jump serve, the first one of the year for the Vikings. By the time she was done serving the score was 24-14 and the crowd was rocking.
The Vikings won 25-17, and took the match 3-1.
All of the girls got to play, and Taylor said she was happy with their effort and learned a little bit about some of the players who don’t get much varsity playing time.
For the evening Rachel Wieben had 5 kills and Abbey Sutton had 11 set assists and 9 assists while Jessica Berg- Collman had 11 set assists and Linden Sutton finished with 8 kills. Breana Peterson and Lexie Palmer played well in the back and Taylor Ryden, Theresa Morrin, Stephanie Lashinski, Katie Vander Heiden, and Sarah Deschampe all played well in the frontcourt.
“If I had to name a star I would have to say it was Megan. She really gave us a lift with her serving,” said Taylor.
But, lamented the coach, “We’re still not talking on the court,” Taylor said. “I had them do a drill tonight (Sept. 26) where they sang the whole night as they practiced. They sang so loud that sometimes they couldn’t hear my instructions. It was a lot of fun. I was pleased with it and they seemed to be having fun and they were moving their feet. Hopefully it will help them when they play their next game.”
The Vikings play Lakeview Christian Academy on Thursday, September 27 at home then travel for their next three games before meeting McGregor on Tuesday, October 9 at home. The varsity action starts at 6:30 p.m.
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