The Crookston Pirate Volleyball team played well, but the high flying and hard-hitting Roseau Rams were too much as they cruised to a 3-0 (25-19, 25-14, 25-18) victory in a Section 8AA matchup played at the Crookston High School gymnasium. “I don’t think we put a full set together tonight,” said Crookston Coach Katie Englestad. “Give credit to Roseau, they had some great hitters and they came after us.”
SET ONE –
Crookston jumped out to a 4-1 lead after a Rylee Solheim ace, but Roseau answered to tie the set at 5-5 after Crookston hit into the net. Crookston added a point before Roseau went on a 7-0 run led by two aces from Rebecca Wensloff, two kills from Anya Severson, two kills from Nevaeh Fletcher. Crookston trailed 14-7 when they went on a 5-0 run behind a couple of Ally Perreault blocks to get within a 14-12 deficit, but Roseau would slowly pull away with a barrage of kills from four different players and a service ace on their way to a 25-19 victory to take a 1-0 lead. “We let them go on a couple of runs and that hurt us tonight,” said Coach Englestad. “We made a run, but we couldn’t stop Roseau’s attacks.”
SET TWO –
Roseau jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the second set after three Crookston hitting errors and kills from Molly Jenson and Aubrey Waage. “We got a little rattled to start the set,” said Coach Englestad. “We never recovered from the slow start.” Crookston stopped the run with a Perreault kill, Roseau had an attack error, Rylee Solheim served an ace, and Roseau hit out of bounds and the Pirates trailed 5-4. The teams were tied at 6-6 after a Perreault ace, but Roseau went on a 10-2 run behind two kills from Severson, two aces from Rebecca Wensloff, two kills from Fletcher, and some Crookston hitting errors for a 16-8 lead. Roseau coasted the rest of the way for a 25-14 victory for a 2-0 lead. “Roseau came out to play tonight and they didn’t let up at all,” said Coach Englestad.
SET THREE –
The teams battled back-and-forth at the start of the third set and Crookston led 4-2. Once again Roseau’s Severson took over with back-to-back kills, a Jenson ace followed by two Pirate hitting errors gave the Rams a 7-4 lead. Roseau built a 19-12 lead before Crookston mounted a comeback with a Perreault kill, a few Roseau errors, and a Mallorie Sundeen kill brought the Pirates within a 20-18 deficit. Crookston had an attack go out of bounds, Roseau’s Severson had a kill, and Crookston hit out of bounds the next three points and Roseau won 25-18 to win the match 3-0. “The girls did a nice job of battling back and left it all out on the floor,” said Coach Englestad. “We have a lot of things to work on going into playoffs.”
Crookston ends the regular season 4-15 and will either travel to Menagha, Thief River Falls, or Roseau in the first round of the Section 8AA volleyball tournament on Wednesday, October 27. KROX will have the match on the radio.
Roseau improves to 11-14 on the year and will play in a tournament on Saturday.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Roseau | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| CROOKSTON | 19 | 14 | 18 |
For CROOKSTON
Kills – Ally Perreault – 3, Hannah Loraas – 3
Blocks – Ally Perreault – 2, Mallorie Sundeen – 1, Libby Salentine – 1
Digs – Breanna Kressin – 13, Bailey Cameron – 7
Assists – Libby Salentine – 6
Aces – Rylee Solheim – 1, Libby Salentine – 1
For Roseau
Kills – Anya Severson – 15, Molly Jensen – 11, Neveah Fletcher – 10
Digs – Hanna Mooney – 23, Anya Severson -12
Assists – Memphis Mertens 36
Aces – Rebecca Wensloff – 4, Molly Jensen – 2
