FIELD TWP- It was standing room only in the North Woods gym for the “Dig Pink Night” battle between the Grizzlies and the Ely Timberwolves, and the Wolves continued their mastery over the Grizzlies with a 3-1 match win.
A good portion of the Ely contingent in the crowd joined North Woods fans in wearing pink for the breast cancer awareness night, a night in which Grizzlies fans were hopeful their team could nab their first win against Ely since 2018.
But the Wolves put the crowd on notice from the outset that they were a force to contend with, taking an 8-2 lead in the opener on a Clare Thomas kill and a North Woods error. The Wolves put their foot on the gas and extended the lead to 19-10 on a Lilli Rechichi spike and coasted to a surprisingly easy 25-13 win.
The Grizzlies buckled down and fared better in the second game after some adjustments.
“I expressed the need to attack everything and quit playing safe,” Grizzlies Head Coach Kaileen Redmond said.
When the Wolves threatened to pull away at 14-9, the Grizzlies got a much needed four-point run that included a block by Amber Sopoci and a kill by Izzy Pascuzzi to narrow the gap to 14-13. The Grizzlies pulled even at 19-19 on a shot by Carsyn Burnett and took a 22-20 lead when a Rechichi hit sailed wide and the Grizzlies’ Brittin Lappi served up an ace. The Grizzlies nabbed a 25-22 win when Mya Kinsey and Sopoci teamed up on a block of an Audrey Kallberg kill.
The score remained close early in the third game as Ely held an 8-7 advantage. But Kallberg lofted a shot over the North Woods front line for a score and followed up with a kill to ignite a six-point run by the Wolves that gave them ample breathing room at 14-7. Ely controlled the game from there, taking a 2-1 lead in the match with a 25-16 win.
A big kill by the Grizzlies’ Lauren Burnett to open the fourth game got the Grizzlies off to their best start of the night, taking an 8-3 lead on a run that included a pair of Pascuzzi kills. North Woods led by as many as six and still held a five-point edge at 16-11 after scores by Lappi and Pascuzzi. An Ely block at 17-13 put the ball in the serving hands of Thomas, who paired a couple of aces with kills by Kallberg and Charlotte Hegman to take an 18-17 lead. Kinsey finally ended the Ely run with a kill to make the score 20-18, and the game was tied 20-20 after an Ely error and a Lauren Burnett kill. The teams traded blows from there, Ely scoring and North Woods responding up to 23-23. Rechichi connected with a big kill shot to put the Wolves one point away from the win, and a Kallberg block sealed the 25-23 win and the match for the Wolves.
Ely Head Coach Megan Wognum gave props to the Grizzlies after the match.
“North Woods always comes to play – I’m always very impressed with their team,” Wognum said. “We did get some good blocks on them, which kind of helped build us up a little bit, helped our momentum. But North Woods is always the game of the year, and we really enjoy playing them. We don’t see as much competition like this around our section, so it’s just really nice to see that level of play.”
Wognum said that the play of Kallberg and Rechichi was key to their success.
“I just have to give it to both of our middles tonight,” she said. “They really showed up to play and they were so strategic and smart about where they were placing the ball. It was just really phenomenal. Audrey, she can soar, she’s up there for what feels like five minutes sometimes. And hat’s off to Lilli – they’re triple-blocking them at times and they got creative with how they were placing the ball.”
Grizzlies Head Coach Kaileen Redmond acknowledged that a heated five-game win over Chisholm on Monday might have affected her team’s stamina on Tuesday, but nonetheless credited her squad for adjusting to Ely’s power game.
“We haven’t faced a force in hitting much this season so matching up with a team we knew had strong hitters was something we spent time preparing for,” she said. “Our blocking was a bit rusty in the beginning but once we started to speed up at the net it made a difference for us.”
Another epic battle between these two teams could come on Saturday in Aurora at the Mesabi East Invitational tournament. Both squads have road games on Monday, with North Woods taking on Nashwauk-Keewatin and Ely facing off against Bigfork.