The Crookston Pirate Volleyball team hosted the East Grand Forks Green Wave Thursday night in a matchup of Section 8AA teams. Fans were also encouraged to wear Pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the Pirates took part in the event, raising $200 for breast cancer research! The Pirates battled in the match, but the Green Wave were too much winning the match in three sets (25-10, 25-20, 25-12).
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First Set
The two teams traded points early on and the lead while they were getting themselves into a rhythm. The Green Wave started to extend their lead with a 6-1 run to pull in front 13-7 and force a Pirates timeout. Crookston would battle and hang around for as long as they could, but mistakes continued to plague the Pirates. Trailing 18-10, the Green Wave would score the last seven points in the set to win 25-10 and take the early lead in the match. In all, EGF rallied off an 18-4 run to close out the set. Anna Funk led Crookston in the opening set with three kills.
Second Set
Grace Fischer would open the scoring in the second set with a kill, but the Green Wave would score three straight and take the early 3-1. Like the first set, Crookston would hang around and find themselves down just a point at 8-7. The Green Wave however would once again score three straight points to force the Pirates timeout with an 11-7 lead. The Pirates would get the deficit down to two points multiple times, but eventually, the Green Wave would go on another run, this time scoring seven straight points to take a 21-12 lead and force a Pirates timeout. The Pirates would fight back and would score eight straight points to pull within two at 22-20. Highlighting the run was back-to-back kills from Destiny Goulet-Ramirez and another kill from Libby Salentine. That would be as close as the Pirates would get, as EGF would calmy settle in after a timeout and score the last three points in the set to go up 2-0 in the match with a 25-20 second set victory.
Third Set
EGF would establish an early lead in the final set as well, scoring the first four points on their way to an early 8-2 lead. The set never got closer than that the rest of the way and the Green Wave would spike their way to a 25-12 win, taking the match in three sets.
Crookston drops to 2-17 on the year and will be back in action Monday night when they travel to play Norman County East/Ulen Hitterdal. The match will begin at 7:30 p.m. and you can hear it on KROX starting with the RiverView Health prematch show at 7:00 p.m. East Grand Forks improves to 13-10 with the win.
FOR PIRATES COACH KATIE ENGELSTAD’S COMMENTS, CLICK BELOW
Audio Player
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| EGF | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| CROOKSTON | 10 | 20 | 12 |
For CROOKSTON
Kills – Anna Funk- (8), Libby Salentine- (7), Destiny Goulet-Ramirez- (5)
Blocks – Libby Salentine, Destiny Goulet-Ramirez- (1 each)
Digs – Dani Kresl- (14), Hannah Brouse- (9), Anna Funk, Libby Salentine- (8 each)
Assists – Libby Salentine- (17)
Aces – NONE
For East Grand Forks
Kills – Addison Kujawa- (12), Ellie Marcott- (10), McKaylee Fitzpatrick- (6)
Blocks – Hayli Robertson- (3) Addison Kujawa, Tatum Spokely- (2 each)
Digs – Claire Beck- (21), Ellie Marcott- (17), Alison Kovar- (13)
Assists – Tatum Spokely- (31)
Aces – Claire Beck- (2), Ellie Marcott, Alison Kovar, Tatum Spokely- (1 each)
