The Crookston Pirate Volleyball team started slow and lost the first two sets before picking up their play to win the next three sets for a 3-2 (19-25, 22-25, 25-17, 25-21, 15-6) over the East Grand Forks Green Wave in a Section 8AA match played at the East Grand Forks Senior High School gymnasium.
The start of the match wasn’t what Crookston was looking for as East Grand Forks started on a 9-1 run that was started with two Ella Eggers service aces and helped out by four Crookston hitting errors. Crookston tried a late set rally with four kills and two aces from Rachel Hefta, but East Grand Forks held on for a 25-19 victory to take a 1-0 lead. “We were sluggish,” said Pirate Coach Stopa. “We weren’t talking and we were standing and we all knew it, but couldn’t do anything about it. We picked up the play towards the end of the set.”
In the second set, the teams were tied at 2-2 when East Grand Forks went on a 5-0 run behind a couple Pirate attack errors and two aces from Kylie Stauss for a 7-2 lead. Crookston answered with a 7-2 run behind three Sydney Anderson aces and the teams were tied at 9-9. The teams battled back-and-forth and were tied at 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20. East Grand Forks’ Oksana Kroese had back-to-back kills to spark a 5-2 run and the Green Wave won the second set 25-22 for a 2-0 lead. “Sydney communicates and everything she hit was in. She had a good match tonight,” said Coach Stopa. “We started to play better at the end of the set, but it wasn’t enough.”
Crookston came out strong in the third set with a 7-1 run behind two Hefta kills and Rylee and Kylie Solheim had a kill apiece in the run and the Pirates had momentum on their side. Crookston built a 20-6 lead and it looked like they were going to cruise to a third set victory, but East Grand Forks battled back to get within a 23-16 deficit. Hefta stopped the Green Wave comeback with a kill and an ace to give Crookston a 25-17 victory and East Grand Forks led the match 2-1. “It was a good balanced team effort in the third set,” said Coach Stopa. “Kylie did a nice job tonight, Rylee was solid all night long and they got us going in the set. It was a big win, most of our serves were in and we picked up our play.”
Crookston had another strong start in the fourth set with a 5-1 run behind two kills from Hefta and another kill from Sydney Anderson. East Grand Forks battled back to tie the set at 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 before the Pirate’s Hefta finished the set with four kills to give Crookston a 25-21 victory to tie the match at two sets apiece. “Rachel took over at the end of the set and that was huge,” said Coach Stopa. “I don’t think she had her best match tonight, but she found ways to make sure the ball got down on the other side.”
In the fifth set, East Grand Forks hit into the net, Hefta had a kill and the Green Wave had a bad pass and Crookston led 3-0. “That was a huge start for us,” said Coach Stopa. “Once I saw our nerves weren’t too bad I felt better about the fifth set.” After a serve went into the net, Rylee Solheim had a kill before East Grand Forks’ Haley Burger had back-to-back kills and Crookston’s lead was down to one point (4-3). East Grand Forks had a couple of errors and Hefta had two kills for an 8-3 Crookston lead. Crookston slowly pulled away and Hailey Seaver finished the match with a kill in the back row for a 15-6 victory to win the match 3-2. “as a head coach, I have never beat East Grand Forks and that means the girls haven’t beat them either and we have some multi-sport athletes that haven’t beat them in other sports either, so it was nice,” said Coach Stopa. “We started slow, but picked it up in the final three sets and that was nice to see us battle back to get our second win in a row.”
Crookston improves to 9-12-1 on the year and will travel to Warren-Alvarado-Oslo on Tuesday. East Grand Forks falls to 3-15 on the year and will travel to Grand Forks Central on Monday.
Kylie Solheim eyes down the ball on a set Hailey Seaver goes up on an attack
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| CROOKSTON | 19 | 22 | 25 | 25 | 15 |
| East Grand Forks | 25 | 25 | 17 | 21 | 6 |
Kasey Cwikla with a dig on the serve receive
For Crookston
Kills – Rachel Hefta – 17, Hailey Seaver – 11
Blocks – Rachel Hefta – 2
Assists – Kylie Solheim – 45
Digs – Kylie Solheim – 19, Hailey Seaver – 17, Dani Boyle – 15, Rachel Hefta – 12
Aces – Rachel Hefta – 4, Emma Boll – 2
