Cloquet Overcomes Pesky Rebels Team To Win In Four

Wes Vork-NSO

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Sept 11, 2012

Wes Vork-NSO

If there was a defining moment for Cloquet in their 3-1 win over Moose Lake-Willow River in girls volleyball it came in the third game of the match. After the Rebels had won game won 27-25, and Cloquet had one game two 25-11, the Jacks trailed the Rebels in game three 17-10. Enter Abbie Anderson who served 10-straight points for the Jacks who went on to win the game 25-22 and the match. The final? 25-27, 25-11, 25-22 and 25-8 in favor of Cloquet.

Kristi Wappes led a strong contingent of Cloquet hitters with 13 kills. Sami Zeadow and Olivia Mayasich both had nine-kills and Chandler Beaupre added seven-kills.

The Rebels also had strong games, especially in game one, and early in game three, but somehow Cloquet was able to turn the tide as they found ways to stop ML-WR on the offensive side. Chloe Maloney had five kills for the Rebels, while it was four kills each for Jolene Eaton and Jodi Michalski.

“We kind of struggled with some fundamentals early on in the night then we found out it was working to serve them short and we tried to capitalize on that” Cloquet Head Volleyball Coach Heidi Anderson explained. “We told the girls we need to be aggressive at the net and they responded.”

Defensively the Rebels got strong play from Haley Johnson who had 10-digs and Andrea Youngberg who finished with 6-digs, while Miranda Jacobson added 11-set assists.

“Obviously I’m happy with our performance overall. Last year Cloquet got the best of us in three and kind of wiped us and this year we put up a pretty good fight. Rebel’s Head Coach Becky Jackson commented to Northland Sports Online following the game. “But we need to fight from start to finish in every game; not just the first and third, but the first, second, third and fourth. We need to work on consistency and stop the runs, we’ve made some strides but we need to work on finding that finishing touch.”

A huge key to the Cloquet win was the consistency of Alex Oakes. Oakes finished with 32-set assists and nine-digs on the night. In the back row the Jacks also got a big game from Katie Zezulka with eight-digs and Anderson, who not only had the big scoring game in game three, but she also finished with 10-digs and three ace serves.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com