The Crookston Pirate Volleyball team started slow and picked up their play as the match went along, but it wasn’t enough as the Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal Titans won the match 3-0 (25-9, 25-13, 25-21) in Twin Valley.
FIRST SET
The Titans got off to a fiery start, scoring 6 of the first 7 points before Coach Katie Morgan called an early timeout. The Pirates cut the score to 6-3, but back-to-back net violations made it 8-3 Titans. NCE/UH then put the pedal down, extending the lead all the way up to 14-3 before a Joey Nesseth kill stopped the run. The lead then stayed at 10 for a while, all the way up to 18-8, before two more kills by the Titans made it 20-8 in their favor. Crookston was just unable to bounce back, and the Titans scored 5 of the final 6 points and claimed the first set by a score of 25-9. Coach Katie Morgan pointed out the issues with this set postgame. “We started off really slow” said Morgan, “…our front row really struggled to get the ball over and into the court.”
SECOND SET
Crookston tried to start the second set a little better, but after NCE/UH took a 5-4 lead, the Titans scored the next 4 to make it 9-4 in their favor. The Titans did not really have a lot of success hitting the ball in this match, but they did very well capitalizing on Pirate mistakes. They continued to do that in this set, getting the score all the way to 13-4 before the Pirates scored two in a row to make it 13-6. Then, the Titans, similar to set 1, took off running, extending the lead to 10 at 17-7, and then up to 19-9. Crookston got a couple great plays by Makenna Kopecky to allow them to hang around, cutting the score to 20-11. but it just wasn’t enough as the Titans with the help of great serving took the second set by a decisive score of 25-13. Coach Katie Morgan really started to emphasize confidence in her players after this set. “We started to find our momentum more” said Morgan, “…we really started to play with confidence.”
THIRD SET
After the Titans scored the first two points, the teams alternated points until another Titan kill made it 6-3 NCE/UH. The lead then stayed at 3 until a Titan service ace made it 9-4. Crookston continued to fight as hard as they could, cutting the lead to 9-6 and forcing a NCE/UH timeout, and they kept the lead at 3 for a while, all they way up until 13-10, easily playing their best set of the night. But then, the Titans made it 15-10, forcing a Katie Morgan timeout, and the Pirates responded with a mini run, cutting the score to 18-14. However, that’s when the Titans stepped up their game once again, increasing the lead back to 5. The lead stayed there until a Mackenzie Funk kill cut the lead to 21-18, but the Titans maintained their three point advantage and defended a late Pirate rally, holding on to win the set 25-21, winning the match in 3 sets. Coach Morgan was full of things to say after the third set. “It was so much fun to see the girls compete for every single ball in the third set” said Morgan, “Everything started to flow for us, everyone started playing with confidence… it was a great set to end on tonight.”
Crookston drops to 0-16 on the year and will host Climax-Fisher on Monday at 7:15 p.m. NCE/UH improves to 3-20 on the year.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Crookston | 9 | 13 | 21 |
| NCE/UH | 25 | 25 | 25 |
For Crookston
Kills – Mackenzie Funk 5, Joey Nesseth 3
Blocks – none
Digs – Emily Bowman 7, Joey Nesseth 5
Assists- Rilynn Aubol 7
Aces – Emily Bowman 2
