Bulldogs Advance In Section 7A Volleyball Playoffs

Wes Vork-NSO

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Oct 24, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Carlton Bulldogs swept the Duluth Marshall Hilltoppers on Wednesday night as the Bulldogs victory moves them into the Section 7A quarterfinals Friday night. The Bulldogs will face the Cromwell Cardinals in a sectional match-up. Marshall had opened the Section 7A playoffs with a 3-2 victory over Mesabi East on Monday night.

The Bulldogs opened the first game of the set jumping out to an early 7-3 lead at home, and Carlton slowly battled with the Hilltoppers as Carlton would come away with the 25-17 victory to take the early lead of 1-0.

With the momentum clearly with the Bulldogs, Carlton jump out to a 12-0 lead after reeling off the first 12 points of the second game of the match behind the serving of Hannah Benson. Carlton and Marshall battled evenly the rest of the way in the second game, but Carlton’s fast start was too much to overcome as the Bulldogs won 25-9 to take a 2-0 lead.

“The girls were hitting their spots tonight.” Carlton Head Volleyball Coach Barb Soukkala told Northland Sports Online about the Bulldogs serving corps. “We have been working a lot on placement of serves in practice and it is paying off. You can’t just hit the ball over the net, especially against good teams. You need to put it in the right place or it is just going to come back at you.”

The third game of the match saw Carlton slip behind 3-1 early on, but the Bulldogs responded right back as they went on a 17-5 run to build an 18-8 lead in the third game of the match. Carlton and Marshall traded points over the next few minutes as Carlton built up a 20-13 lead.

It was the Bulldogs Grace Macor, who finished off the last five points for Carlton on five consecutive kills to end the match and the Bulldogs earned the weep with a 25-13 win. They now move into the quarterfinals at Proctor on Friday night.

The Bulldogs, with the victory Wednesday night, improve to 20-7 on the season and will face the Cromwell Cardinals in the Section 7A quarterfinals Friday night at 6 pm at Proctor High School. The Cardinals and the Bulldogs met a little over two weeks ago and it was the Bulldogs sweeping Cromwell in a match that was very competitive.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com