ELY- In a busy week of volleyball action, the Ely girls ran their season-opening win streak to eight with five match wins before suffering their first loss of the season on Monday at Chisholm.
The field at Saturday’s tournament at Greenway included some heavy hitters, but none that had the tools to take down the Wolves. Ely opened the morning against Nashwauk-Keewatin and had little trouble with the Spartans, winning 25-13 and 25-18 in the best-of-three format.
After a break, the Wolves squared off against International Falls and were pushed by the Broncs in the first set, winning 25-20. Ely demolished the Broncos in the second, 25-5.
Hosts Greenway took their thrashing in the afternoon session, as the Wolves breezed to victory, 25-11, 25-18.
Mesabi East was the final obstacle to overcome, and the Giants handed Ely their first game loss of the season in the opener, 28-26. The Wolves came back strong, however, beating the Giants 25-18 in the second game and 15-9 in the finale to go undefeated on the day. Individual statistics were not available for the tournament matches.
The Timberwolves’ eight-match winning streak came to an end on Monday in a five-set thriller at Chisholm. After dropping the opening set 28-26, Ely rebounded to win the next two by identical 25-22 scores. Chisholm answered with a 25-21 win in the fourth set and edged the Wolves 15-13 in the deciding fifth set to take the match 3-2.Hegman and Kallberg led a balanced Ely attack with 13 kills each, while Udovich finished with 12 and Shultz added nine. Lowe distributed 44 set assists.
Shultz led the back row with 25 digs, followed by Lowe with 14 and Hegman with 13. Udovich recorded four solo blocks and two block assists, while Hegman and Kallberg each had one solo block and three block assists. Penke contributed five block assists.
Shultz and Peyton Huntington served three aces apiece, while Hegman and Kallberg each added two.