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Young Wolves making giant strides

Ely takes another pair, continues to improve win total

Patrick Slack
Posted 10/12/16

ELY - Ely couldn’t quite turn yet another home nail-biter into a marathon win Monday, narrowly falling 25-22, 23-25, 17-25, 25-22, 15-9 to Mountain Iron-Buhl.

Lida Dodge set up the Wolves’ …

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Young Wolves making giant strides

Ely takes another pair, continues to improve win total

Posted

ELY - Ely couldn’t quite turn yet another home nail-biter into a marathon win Monday, narrowly falling 25-22, 23-25, 17-25, 25-22, 15-9 to Mountain Iron-Buhl.

Lida Dodge set up the Wolves’ offense with 32 assists and landed five ace serves.

Brielle Kallberg planted 25 kills to go along with 11 digs and three aces, Kenzie Peterson had seven kills and Erika Mattson had five kills and 10 digs.

Ely had won its past two home matches in five sets.

Just being in so many competitive matches is a sign of significant progress from a year ago. But the Wolves, coming off of a season with just one win, haven’t had to settle for simply moral victories.

With two more wins over Floodwood and North Woods at Saturday’s Mesabi East tournament, the young lineup has now upped its win total for the year to nine, with two more cracks at reaching double digits during the final week of the regular season.

For Ely head coach Andrea Thomas, the explanation is simple.

“Hard work,” Thomas said. “The girls are taking volleyball seriously and have wanted to improve from the beginning. We’ve been able to get rid of a lot of bad habits and really focus on the fundamentals.”

The Wolves aren’t satisified with where they are though, believing they can reach even greater heights in years to come.

“Definitely,” Thomas said. “Just watching the amount of improvement that has taken place in two months leaves me very excited about the years to come. I believe with maturity the mental aspects of the game will get stronger, the more the girls play together the better their court sense is going to be and with a good skill base we will be able to step it up another level next year.”

Several players have elevated their play for Ely, perhaps none more than Kallberg as a power hitter in the middle.

“Brielle has been playing great lately,” Thomas said. “She has the ability to terminate the ball on offense and is developing court awareness and learning to adjust when she is being blocked in the middle. Her kills and blocks often ignite our momentum when we are down. Brielle has a lot of natural ability, but she also puts time in during the offseason.

“I think all of the girls have taken their turn stepping up at different points during the season. Lately, Erika Mattson is consistently getting kills, Kenzie Peterson and Kalley Fischer help us stay on top with tough serves, and Lida Dodge does a great job running the offense as our setter.”

Ely was scheduled to host Nashwauk/Keewatin on Thursday and closes the regular season at Silver Bay on Monday.