The Crookston Pirate Volleyball team played a match that had a little bit of everything, but it ended witht them on the short end, and the Win-E-Mac Patriots defeated the Pirates in 4 sets, by a score of 25-18, 28-26, 13-25, 25-9 in Erskine on Monday night
FIRST SET
The Pirates scored first in the match, but the Patriots delivered a 6-0 run immediately to answer, taking a 6-1 lead. The Pirates found a hot hand early in Madi Abrams, who had her first of 4 kills at this juncture to cut the lead down to 6-4. Win-E-Mac, however, did a great job of keeping the lead at a multi-point gap. Though Crookston played well, the Patriots had the help of Ensley and Macie Haskett, who each recorded multiple kills to keep the Pirates at bay. Eventually, after the Pirates cut the lead down to 3 at 21-18, the Patriots scored 4 in a row, capped off by a Clara Kolden ace to give the Patriots a 25-18 first set win.
SECOND SET
The second set was one of, if not the closest set played by the Pirates all year. Neither team had a lead larger than 2 at any point of the set. The Patriots had a 4-2 lead, and never had another multi-point lead until they took a 16-14 lead. The Pirates went up another level in their play, as Jayde Uttermark recorded multiple aces and Abi Bruley recorded multiple kills to keep the Pirates going point-for-point. THe Pirates ended up with a 24-23 advantage, before a serve into the net tied things up at 25. The teams tied the match at 26, before the Patriots finally had the last laugh, as Macie Haskett was finally able to get the Patriots over the hump, giving the Patriots a 28-26 lead and a 2 sets to none advantage.
THIRD SET
Most teams who lose an incredibly close second set might come out flat in the third, but the Pirates did no such thing. The Pirates had their first long run in this match, as after a 4-3 start, the Pirates ran a 7-0 run to take an 11-3 lead. The serving was especially on point, especially from Ally Wagner, who recorded 5 aces in this set alone, compared to just one service error. The offense also continued to provide, as Abrams reached double digit kills for the first time all year. Jayde Uttermark ended another 5-0 run with a kill to give the Pirates a 19-9 lead, and they were able to cruise from there, as they took the third set 25-13, extending the match to a 4th set.
FOURTH SET
As was the case a couple times earlier in the season, the third set took a lot out of the Pirates, and they came out flat to start the fourth set. Ensley Hackett had her best set of the match, recording two blocks, two kills and two aces in the set alone. The Patriots capitalized on serve recieve errors, free balls and excellent offense to take a 22-6 lead, wgich allowed them to coast to a 25-9 set victory, giving them a 3 sets to 1 victory overall in the match.
Crookston drops to 1-14 and travels to Warroad Tuesday night. Win-E-Mac is now 3-9 on the year.
C Squad – Crookston won 2-0 JV – Win-E-Mac won 2-1
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| Crookston | 18 | 26 | 25 | 25 |
| Win-E-Mac | 25 | 28 | 13 | 9 |
For Crookston
Kills – Madi Abrams 10, Jayde Uttermark
Blocks – Abi Bruley, Ally Wagner, Jayde Utermark 1
Digs – Brynna Kopecky 17, Lana Peterson 12
Assists- Rilynn Aubol 21
Aces – Ally Wagner 5, Rilynn Aubol, Jayde Uttermark 4
For Win-E-Mac
Kills – Ensley Haskett 13, Macie Haskett 7
Blocks – Ensley Haskett 2
Digs – Paige Breicbach 19, Khloe Luckow 12
Assists – Clara Kolden 14, Paige Breicbach 9
Aces – Ensley Haskett 3
