Viking head coach Marlene Wester talks over strategy with her team during a timeout in the Vikings’ game against North Woods. The young Viking team made very few unforced errors in the match, served the ball very well, and did a good job of forcing some long points against the bigger North Woods team. In the end the Vikings fell just short, losing game 4 after coming from way behind to tie the score 20-20. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
The Cook County High School volleyball team played five games in the last eight days, losing each, but playing better as the season goes along.
On Monday, Sept. 30 the Vikings squared off against a good North Woods team at home in front of a packed house at Pam Taylor gymnasium. The young Vikings gave a good Grizzly team a tough battle before falling 3-1.
The Grizzlies took the first game 25-17 but the Vikings came right back to win the second game in a nail biter 25-23.
In the second game Alyssa Spry and Molly LaVigne each made some great digs off of hard-hit serves to feed their setters, Paige Everson and Sadie Wilson, who made some terrific sets to the front court of Paisley Smith, Bianca Zimmer, Charlet Waver, Morgan Starkey, Katie Peck.
That great team play kept up through the rest of the match.
Game three was tied at 14-14 and the teams were locked in battles of long points. That ended when the Grizzlies started to go to Coley Olson and Kaya Tschida, their strong outside hitters who blistered spikes past the Vikings’ front row and were all but unreturnable and the Vikings fell 25-18.
Game four didn’t start well for the Vikings. The team was down 0-3 on a serve into the net, a ball that dropped untouched in the center of the court and a miss-hit into the net. Paisley Smith got the team untracked with a spike. Bianca Zimmer came back with another spike that went through the hands of two Grizzly blockers. The Grizzlies scored on a hit into the net, but gave that point right back to the Vikings when they hit out of bounds.
Paisley tied the score 4-4 on a nice tip just over the net. Emmalli Meyers scored on a hard-hit serve that bounced out of bounds off of a backcourt player’s hands to give the Vikings a 5-4 lead.
North Woods went on a 5-1 run behind some great serving and more power from its front line before the Vikings responded with a couple of points off of an ace serve from Bianca and a block from Paisley.
As the action picked up North Woods served out of bounds but the Vikings couldn’t hold their serve when Kaya Tschida spiked one past the Viking blockers. North Woods picked up the next point on a floater to the back corner that landed in. Smith came back and hammered home a point for the Vikings to make it 8-14.
Once again North Woods went on a run, outscoring the Vikings 6-2 to take a 20-11 lead.
Charlet Waver served the Vikings’ next five points and the team trailed 16-20, and the fans were cheering the Vikings on. North Woods scored one and Paisley spiked one in to make it 21-17 and Bianca Zimmer was up to serve. North Woods players were into the net on the next play and Tschida was long on a spike to make the score 19-21. Once again Paisley Smith sent a spike past the Grizzlies and the score was 20-21. The Vikings could only manage one more point in this exciting game, falling 25-21, but the fans got their money’s worth.
Paisley Smith ended her night with 10 kills, 8 digs, and 3 ace blocks.
Bianca Zimmer finished with 18 digs and 5 ace serves.
Molly LaVigne had 16 set assists, Morgan Starkey 18 digs and 3 ace serves, and the always-steady Alyssa Spry ended her night with a team high 28 digs.
Kayla Tschida led North Woods with 13 kills. Morgan Burnett had 25 set assists, 3 ace serves; Coley Olson had 11 kills and Abbi Shuster 6 ace serves.
Mariners sink Vikings
Cook County got little rest as the team boarded the bus and rode to Silver Bay the next day to play their North Shore rival. The Mariners came into the contest with an early season 3-1 win over the Vikings and they sit in fourth place in the 12-team conference.
All three games were very competitive, with the Vikings falling 25-19, 25-19 and 25-27.
Morgan Starkey finished with 17 digs and 5 kills. Emmalli Myers had 7 kills, Alyssa Spry 34 digs, Katie Peck 5 ace serves and 7 set assists and Molly LaVigne made 11 set assists.
Vikings fall to Proctor and Barnum
The Vikings traveled to Proctor on Monday, Sept. 23 to face the once beaten Rails and fell 25-6, 25-13 and 25-21. Alyssa Spry led the team with 19 digs.
On Thursday, Sept. 26 the Vikings traveled to Barnum to play the Barnum Bombers and lost 3-2. No other statistics were made available for this game.
On Saturday, Sept. 28, the Vikings traveled to Two Harbors to play in a weekend tournament where they met Barnum again. The Vikings fell 25-12, 25-13 and were knocked out of the tournament play.
The Vikings are 1-11 on the year, but have been getting closer to winning matches each time they take the floor. Carlton leads the 12-team conference with a 5-0 record.
The Vikings’ next home game is on Monday, Oct. 7 at 6:30 p.m. against Mountain Iron-Buhl.
The girls also take the floor on Thursday, Oct. 10 against Lakeview Christian Academy at 6:30 p.m. That is the last home game of the season for the Vikings. Come out and cheer them on!!!
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