The Crookston Pirate Volleyball team struggled on the serve receive, passing, and handling big attacks in a 3-0 (25-6, 25-15, 25-15) loss to the Sacred Heart Eagles in a match played at the Crookston High School gymnasium.
FIRST SET
After Crookston scored the first point of the set, kills by Lydia Riskey and Claire Adolphson helped fuel a 9-0 run for the Sacred Heart Eagles, making it 9-1. Crookston attempted to respond with some nice serves from Carley Knutson, but Sacred Heart continued to push, capitalizing on mistakes in the serve receive, double hits, and service errors. The first set concluded with a Lexi Lawrence kill, ending a dominating first set at 25-6. “The start set the tone for the entire match, I thought,” said Pirate Coach Morgan. “The first set, we just kind of wanted to forget about that one.”
SECOND SET
The Pirates did a much better job at the beginning of the second set, getting a much-needed spark from junior Emma LaPlante with solid serve receive and some nice kills. “Emma is a little sparkplug, and she is playing tennis too, and it was fun to have her back and to have her aggression on the floor,” said Coach Morgan. However, the momentum was short-lived as a Sophie Werner ace began to turn the momentum back in favor of the Pirates. After the Werner ace made it 17-10, the serve receive once again went awry, and the Eagles went on yet another run to make the score 21-10. Crookston did not give up, and after being down 24-12, the Pirates went on a mini-run to cut the score to single digits before a Reese Chwialkowski block sealed the deal for the Eagles, taking the second set 25-15 and a 2-0 set lead. “I thought we played really good defense, and we passed well on the serve receive, and those our kind of our goals,” said Sacred Heart Coach Emily Vonasek. “We wanted to keep our energy up and keep playing our game.”
THIRD SET
The third set started out completely different for the Pirates. Kills by Carley Knutson and Mackenzie Funk kept the Pirates in the set as the teams alternated the first eight points. However, Crookston once again had problems arise in the serve receive, and after a Naomi Johnson kill cut, the Sacred Heart led 8-5. “I feel our girls really rallied in the second and third set,” said Pirate Coach Morgan. “Our scores aren’t going to necessarily show it and that is what kind of stinks about rally scoring. It doesn’t show how our girls played and how they fought for each ball I thought. We showed a lot of progress today, I thought.” Sacred Heart used the help of a Sophie Werner kill and an Anna Kaiser ace to cap off a 7-0 run, making the score 15-5, and warranting a Katie Morgan timeout. Sacred Heart then began to get some production from their reserves, as Olivia Deere and Kayla Benson came into the back row, and Rose Votava provided an ace to make the score 22-10. Once again, despite a run from the Pirates, during which Joey Nesseth scored both of her aces from the match, a Lydia Riskey kill sealed the deal for Sacred Heart, taking the set 25-15 and winning the match by a score of 3-0.
“When we pass well, we can get the ball to our hitters,” said Sacred Heart Coach Vonasek. “We have some weapons, and I was happy with the way we played. We need to keep doing the little things well, and with a big week coming up, we need to keep working on getting better.”
Crookston drops to 0-4 on the year and will host Ada-Borup-West on Monday. Sacred Heart improves to 1-2 on the year.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Sacred Heart | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| Crookston | 6 | 15 | 15 |
For Crookston
Kills – Naomi Johnson-4, Mackenzie Funk-3
Blocks – None
Digs – Emily Bowman -5, Joey Nesseth – 4, Emma LaPlante-4, Mackenzie Funk-4
Assists – Makenna Kopecky-5
Aces –Joey Nesseth-2
For Sacred Heart
Kills – Lexi Lawrence-9, Lydia Riskey-9
Blocks – Lydia Riskey-1, Reese Chwialkowski-1
Digs – Lydia Riskey-8
Assists – Sophie Werner-22
Aces – Lydia Riskey-4, Lexi Lawrence-3, Sophie Werner-3
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