Far left: With Shauna Blake (No. 12) and Alex Slanga looking on, Lily Gruber-Schulz went up high and got ready to slam a spike past the Cromwell Cardinals’ front line. Above: With Sarah Toftey ready to make an assist, Trace McQuatters took a hard serve and set it to her front line. Left: Emily Jacobsen deftly blocked this ball, which resulted in a point for the Vikings.
The Cook County High School volleyball team wasted little time defeating Two Harbors three games to none on Thursday, September 3 in a game played at home.
Scoring early and often, the Vikings won their first two games by the identical score of 25-8, and took the last game 25-19.
Cook County’s tall front line was once again outstanding, blocking well on defense, taking and making sets and finishing off with spikes for points. Emily Jacobsen had 5 kills and Meredith Sutton 9 kills in the contest.
Linden Sutton was stellar at the serving line, finishing with 8 aces. Raina Ryden also served well, adding 4 ace serves of her own.
From the back row Madison “Maddy” Roy had 13 set assists and 5 serve aces.
Ayla Lemke led Two Harbors with 6 kills and 2 solo blocks while Keely Sundstrom had 6 digs.
The Vikings are now 2-0 on the year.
Vikings clip Cardinals
On Tuesday, September 8 the Vikings again took to their home floor and clipped the wings of the perennially tough Cromwell Cardinals 3-0 in an exciting match filled with long points, dramatic spikes, dramatic saves and great volleyball played by both squads.
The Vikings won the first game 25-11, game two 25-22 and game three 25-18, but the last two games were closer than the final scores indicate.
In game two the Vikings led the Cardinals 16-9 before the red birds staged a comeback, coming within two points and trailing 20-22 before Meredith Sutton said enough was enough and smashed two big spikes, one for the 23rd point and her last missile that thundered on the floor for the 25th point to seal the win for the Vikings.
The Vikings trailed in game three until knotting the score at 14 all. From that point on the Vikings’ steady backcourt play and nearly-perfect serving kept Cromwell on its heels, and when a big point was needed, it came from the Vikings’ big front line of either Emily Jacobsen, Lily Gruber-Schulz, Linden Sutton or Meredith Sutton, as the Vikings’ big hitters often overpowered the smaller but feisty Cromwell front line.
Meredith ended her night with 13 kills while Linden finished with 6 kills and 7 solo blocks. Lily tallied 8 kills, Emily Jacobsen 7 kills and Madison Roy 29 set assists.
The Vikings also received some great serving from Tarin Hanson.
Kiera Anderson, 10 digs, and big hitting Bailey Groner, 5 kills and 8 digs, led Cromwell.
Vikings play two home games
The Vikings traveled to Barnum on Friday, September 10 and then come home on Monday, September 14 to play Mesabi East. The next night Mountain Iron-Buhl comes to town in what should be a good match-up for the Vikings. Both home games start at 7 p.m.
Come out and cheer on your undefeated Vikings!
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