The Crookston Pirate Volleyball team won their first playoff game since 2009 with a 3-1 (25-22, 16-25, 25-22, 25-19) victory over the Thief River Falls Prowlers in a Section 8AA Tournament first-round game in Thief River Falls. “My seniors wanted it and they didn’t want this to be their last game,” said Pirate Coach Ashley Stopa. “We had some great points, played some great defense, served well and had some nice attacks. We played very well tonight and the girls wanted it.”
The day didn’t start well for the Crookston Pirates Volleyball team as they arrived late at Thief River Falls because of bus trouble, but it didn’t faze a determined Crookston team.
Game One
The match started 15 minutes late as Thief River Falls was gracious enough to allow the late arriving Pirates some more warm-up time. Both teams had a nervous energy to start the match with some long hits a couple times by Thief River Falls and the Pirates had a serve hit the back wall. They went back and forth and tied at 4-4 with the Pirates Rachel Hefta (Senior) getting the first kill of the night. Crookston took advantage of two hits out of bounds by the Prowlers to take a 6-4 lead. When Kylie Solheim (Senior) attack beat the Prowlers and a 7-5 lead, but the Pirates again had a serve that was way too strong to bring Thief River Falls within 7-6. The Pirates would get two straight points, one on a big hit by Hailey Seaver (Senior) to give Crookston their biggest lead at 9-6. Crookston led 10-7 when the Pirates again had a problem with a serve but they recovered and scored again on a Hefta kill to take a 13-9 lead. Thief River Falls would score three in a row behind the serving of Marryn Dalager and the kills of Kylee Hoffard and Linnea Mowry and the Pirates still leading but only 13-12. Crookston would counter with three points in a row behind the hitting of Hefta to take a 15-12 lead but then again the Pirates had a bad serve, which was given right back by the Prowlers on a bad serve and Crookston’s lead was 16-13. Even though the Prowlers had problems getting hits in bounds, they kept swinging and they kept going out of bound and Crookston led 17-14. After Thief River Falls scored two in a row to make it 17-16 and then both teams traded points plus another Hefta kill gave Crookston a 20-17 lead and the Prowlers called a timeout. After the timeout, the Pirates had another bad serve but Thief River Falls gave it right back on a miscue followed by another Hefta kill. Hefta then was serving and with a jump serve scored an ace to take a 23-19. “We knew we could do this and play like we knew we could play,” said Hefta. Thief River Falls used their second timeout and came back out with a Mowry kill to make it 23-20 and followed by a hit into the net by Crookston and now it’s 23-21 with the Pirates clinging and two points away from the first set. The two teams had quite a rally before Haylie Rogalla had a cross-court kill to make it 23-22. Crookston would get to 24-22 after the Prowlers were in the net and then coming at the right time, a Casey Cwikla (Junior) serving ace to give Crookston a 25-22 win to claim the first set. “Casey has a hard serve and when she gets it down, it’s really effective,” said coach Stopa.
Game Two
The Pirates Hefta started the second set with a kill to give Crookston the early lead but it was returned by a huge attack from Rebecca Leier of Thief River Falls to make it 1-1 and Leier was quickly called for a lift and the Pirates back up 2-1. Leier started flexing a bit in the second set with another kill, served an ace followed by a kill by Mowry and Thief River Falls was up 5-2 when Hefta has another smack for a kill to cut Thief River Falls lead to 5-3. After another kill and ace by Thief River Falls, the Prowlers took a 7-3 lead and forced the Pirates to call a timeout. The Pirates Cwikla had a good serving run with an ace and three straight points before she placed one into the net and Thief River Falls lead was now 8-7. Thief River Falls behind the serving of Janae Erickson and the net play of Madison Kish, the Prowlers took a 12-7 lead which was their biggest of the match thus far. After the Prowlers took a 13-7 lead they had two straight mishits but Coral Mattison blasted a kill and another Crookston mistake and Thief River Falls mounted a 16-9 lead. The Pirates were looking to gain some momentum and did have two Hefta kills back to back and a mistake by Thief River Falls and their lead was down to 16-12. Hefta continued to be a pain for Thief River Falls with her third straight kill before another serving mistake by Crookston, but here comes Hefta slapping a kill off a Prowler. The two teams went back and forth with Thief River Falls maintaining a lead with a kill by Rogalla and a block by Mowry and a 21-16. The play at the net for Thief River Falls was a puzzle to the Pirates as the Prowlers ran out the second set and a 25-16 on a Kish kill to tie the match at one apiece.
Game Three
Crookston jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the third set and after a Thief River Falls timeout, the Prowlers scored three in a row before Hefta and Cwikla with kills put the Pirates up 9-3. “The start was amazing with our top server Seaver really doing a great job to start the third game,” said Stopa, “even though Thief River Falls was battling back, it gave us that early cushion.” Crookston was leading 12-8. The Pirate lead just didn’t seem safe and the Prowlers stormed back to tie the match at 13-13. The two teams would go back and forth and tied again at 16-16. When Leier blasted a winning kill it gave Thief River Falls their first lead at 17-16 but Crookston gets a point after a too long hit by the Prowlers. After a tremendous rally by both teams with a great Prowler save before Hefta slams one down followed by a Thief River Falls mishit and Crookston was back on top at 19-18. Crookston scored three points in a row with the third point coming after Thief River Falls played a ball out of bounds and couldn’t get it back on court and Crookston led 23-19 and the Prowlers called a timeout. Thief River Falls scored three points in a row to get within 23-22 and then it was Cwikla coming up with a big kill and put the Pirates on set point leading 24-22. After a Seaver block kept the ball alive, the Prowlers then mishit the ball into the net and Crookston won game three 25-22 to take a two games to one lead.
Game Four
“We knew this was an important set as we don’t get this one, we might not win this thing,” said Hefta, “but we were very determined to start the fourth set.” Nobody could get control in the fourth game being tied five times at 5-5. Crookston would find some room with a hit by Hefta and well placed hit by Seaver and a 9-6 lead for Crookston. After the Pirates took a 12-7 lead, Thief River Falls called a timeout. After the break, Crookston’s Seaver threaded an ace and a 13-7 lead which was answered by Thief River Falls twice including a big swing by Rogalla to make it 13-9. Thief River Falls had two serving aces, made a mistake serving and then Rogalla slammed a point down, followed by another ace by Katie Nelson and Crookston’s lead was now 14-13. Thief River Falls did the Pirates a favor hitting it into the net which was canceled by miscommunication by the Pirates mid row and Thief River Falls trailed 15-14. The excitement continued as it was tied 16-16 before the Pirates Hefta with another kill, a mistake on a return by Thief River Falls, a kill by the Pirates Sydney Anderson (Senior) and Seaver the Pirates were back up 20-16. “That was huge,” said Stopa, “after Syd’s swing I told Hailey (Seaver) that she would do it too and she sort of looked at me, but after she hit the point, she looked again and said you’re right.” After a Rogalla huge swing and kill it was 21-18 for Crookston which was four points away from set and match. Thief River Falls would hit it into the net but it was followed by a missed serve by Crookston before Hefta on two kills to put the game and match away at 25-19 for a four-set victory. “This is amazing it really is,” said Stopa, “the girls wanted this and made it happened. We had some lapses tonight but kept battling back. My seniors didn’t want their high school careers to end tonight.”
With the win Crookston moves to 12-12-1 on the year and get another rematch with the Roseau Rams tomorrow night in Roseau in a Section quarterfinal match at 7:00 PM and KROX will have the RiverView Health pre-match show at 6:30 p.m. Thief River Falls ends their season at 7-19.
The Pirates celebrate the victory over Thief River Falls – click above
Kylie Solheim sets up Hailey Seaver as the Pirate student body looks on
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| CROOKSTON | 25 | 16 | 25 | 25 |
| Thief River Falls | 22 | 25 | 22 | 19 |
Hailey Seaver Rachel Hefta Dani Boyle
For Crookston
Kills – Rachel Hefta – 24, Hailey Seaver – 8
Blocks – Rachel Hefta – 1
Assists – Kylie Solheim – 36
Digs – Sydney Anderson – 15, Dani Boyle – 14, Rachel Hefta – 11
Aces – Kasey Cwikla – 2
