Hermantown’s Dream Season Comes Up Just Short

Photo: Wes Vork-NSO

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Nov 3, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Hermantown Hawks girls volleyball team has had a season that many teams would love to have. Entering Saturday night’s section final with Mora, the Hawks were winners of 12 straight matches and were seeking a trip to the state tournament for the first time since 1995.

The Hawks opened up with a win in the first game of the match, but the More Mustangs rebounded to win three straight games to advance to the girls state volleyball tournament for the first time in the school’s history.

Hermantown won that extended first game of the match by a score of 29-27; a game where Mora had seven serve errors. The Mustangs re-grouped and went on to a 25-22 win in the second game of the match, the third game was a 25-19 win for Mora, and the Mustangs finished the comeback with the win in the fourth game of the match with a 25-23 victory.

“We were a bit nervous going in and kind of shot ourselves in the foot with the serve errors in game one but we picked it up as the games went on.” Mustangs middle hitter Noelle Elvehjem stated after the match. “To be a senior captain and be a part of this is a great feeling.”

The Hawks, who had only lost twice this season, a loss to Greenway in their fifth match of the season, and a loss to Holy Angels in the Virginia tournament in September. The Hawks had not lost a match and only lost two games since; they had not lost a single game in the Section 7AA tournament.

“It hurts right now but we had a great year” stated Hermantown Head Coach Sue Wasbotten. “We got the conference back, had a really good record, three losses isn’t bad…and most importantly the girls had a lot of fun.”

Emily Neumann finished with 25 set assists to lead the Hawks Saturday night, Jessica Wasbotten had 16 digs, Stephanie Kallberg chipped in with 12 kills, Kaitlyn Paczynski added 18 digs, and Katie Thun closed the Hawks stats with 13 kills and 5 blocks in the section loss.

The Mustangs were led by Elvehjem who had 20 kills, 18 digs, and she also had 3 ace serves for Mora. Kristen Eustice finished with 32 set assists, 4 blocks and she had 16 digs. Stephanie Cannon had 12 kills, 20 digs, and 4 blocks on the night for Mora.

For the Mustangs a trip to the big dance has been a while in the making. Last season they advanced to the section finals only to be turned back by a talented Esko squad. “We have been banging on the door for three years” explained Elvehjem. “Tonight was finally our night and it feels great.”

Mora Head Coach Lisa Gustafson echoed her star player’s thoughts. “We have kind of had a tradition of getting close but not over the hump. In September we talked about that and it was brought up before the game tonight. We talked about how hard we worked this year and it was time to break that tradition”

The Hawks finish the season with an overall record of 27-3 overall and were the Lake Superior Conference Champions. Mora improves to 24-7 and will advance to the state girls volleyball tournament, their opponent has yet to be determined.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com