ELY – The Wolves were looking forward to Tuesday’s rematch with North Woods after losing to them in the semi-final round of the Mesabi East tournament just three days earlier. But the Grizzlies proved to be the better team yet again, as they dispatched the Wolves in three straight sets, 25-17, 25- 21, and 25-11.

With the regular season winding down, both teams were playing to stay in the top half of the conference for home playoff advantage.

The Grizzlies took advantage of every opportunity, and seemed to avoid mistakes from some earlier matches. “North Woods did a nice job of finding our holes and we struggled at times to get a good block up,” said Ely Head Coach Andrea Thomas.

North Woods Assistant Coach Dee Sandberg returned the compliment. “Ely came out to play,” said Sandberg. “They have some really good hitters. We were finally able to get some blocks on them, which helped us a lot. This is a big improvement for us.”

The Wolves may have been running low on gas as they had played seven matches over the past six days. “We were definitely competitive in sets one and two,” said Thomas. “We had a tough outing in set three.”

North Woods put up impressive numbers, with Coley Olson notching seven kills, three blocks, two digs and an ace, while Regan Ratai notched five kills, three blocks, five digs, and an ace. Claire Beaudry put up 19 set assists, three digs, and ace and a kill, Kayla Tschida recorded six blocks and a kill, and Hanna Sandberg tallied three aces, three digs, and a kill. Kate Stone notched five digs and two kills, while Karlyn Pierce recorded six blocks and a kill.

Ely had a number of contributers on offense starting with Erika Mattson who had seven kills and six digs followed by Brielle Kallberg adding six kills, 13 digs, and four blocks. Winter Sainio contributed seven kills and two ace serves while Junior Lida Dodge had a team high 22 set assists.

The Wolves will host Nashwauk-Keewatin on Thursday Oct. 12 for their final regular season home match with varsity starting at 7 p.m. They close out their regular season on Monday, at Silver Bay. North Woods travels to Chisholm on Monday before hosting South Ridge in their regular season finale. Game time is 7 p.m.