The Crookston Pirate Volleyball team played a hard-fought and very close first set but couldn’t replicate that in the final two sets, as the Red Lake County Central Mustangs came away with a 3-0 win, by a score of 25-22, 25-5, 25-9 at the Crookston High School Gymnasium on Thursday night.
FIRST SET
The first set was very close the entire way. Neither team had a lead larger than 3 points at any time. The Mustangs got off to a better start, taking a 5-3 lead, before an Abi Bruley kill ended a 4-1 spurt to put the Pirates up 7-6. The back-and-forth continued after RLCC scored 3 points in a row to go up 9-7, and the Pirates responding to go up 10-9. A big moment in the set came at 17-16 Mustangs, when the Pirates rattled off 4 in a row, capped off by a Bruley ace to go up 20-17. However, after a RLCC timeout, they came out with the final blow, going on an 8-2 run with 7 kills in the process, surging ahead to take the first set 25-22.
SECOND SET
Set 2 could not have played any different for the Pirates, unfortunately in a negative sense. The Mustangs scored the first 5 points of the set, before the Pirates scored 2 of the next 3 will kills from Jayde Uttermark and MAdi Abrams to cut the score to 6-2. That would be the last bit of scoring for the Pirates for a long time, as the Mustangs exploded for a 15-0 run, getting kills from three different players en route to a 21-2 advantage. The Pirates squeaked out a few more points, but the Mustangs took the second set in dominating fashion by a score of 25-5, going up 2 sets to none.
THIRD SET
Crookston scored the first point of the third set, but the Mustangs would not let the Pirates breathe, as they scored the next 7 points in a row to take a 7-1 lead. The offense took off and clicked , delivering 5 kills in that span. The Pirates looked to try and claw their way back, as two KIlls apiece from Brynna Kopecky and Jade Uttermark pushed the score to 13-6, but the Mustangs had one more big surge in front of them, ending the match on a 13-3 run to put it away by a score of 25-9, winning the match in 3 sets.
Crooskton falls to 1-8 and will host the Crookston Invitational Tournament on Saturday. RLCC improves to 5-8 on the year.
C Squad – RLCC won 2-0 (28-26, 25-16) JV – CROX won 2-0 (25-23, 25-15)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Red Lake Co. Central | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| Crookston | 22 | 5 | 9 |
For Crookston
Kills – Jayde Uttermark 4, Brynna Kopecky, Rilynn Aubol 3
Blocks – Abi Bruley 1
Digs – Ella Anderson 14, Brynna Kopecky 10
Assists- Rilynn Aubol 9
Aces – Abi Bruley, Lana Peterson, Ally Wagner 1
For Red Lake County Central
Kills – McKaelyn Frizzle 11, Aubrey Halverson 9
Blocks – Aubrey Halverson 1
Digs – Emma Hendrickson 19
Assists – Emma Hendrickson 16, Graceyn Kvasager 12
Aces – Leah Pahlen 3
