FIELD TWP — The only thing that may have suffered more than the Littlefork-Big Falls volleyball team on Tuesday was North Woods concession stand sales, as the host Grizzlies ripped through the Vikings so fast that fans had little chance to get popcorn.
With the Grizzlies putting their 11-1 record on the line against the 3-6 Vikings, this one was a mismatch from the outset.
Izzy Pascuzzi got North Woods off to a sizzling start at the service line, nailing three aces in a six-point run to start the match. Carsyn Burnett did even better, serving out a huge 11-point streak that put the Grizzlies up 24-5. A Pascuzzi kill put the exclamation point on the 25-7 beatdown. The Grizzlies took longer to get in gear in the second set, trailing early 9-7. A Lauren Burnett kill got North Woods on a seven-point roll for a 14-9 advantage, and the Grizzlies closed out the set on an 11-3 run to win 25-12.
Set three returned to the same script as the first, with North Woods blowing out to a crushing 21-3 lead, with a big part of that coming from Burnett’s sizzling serving. The Vikings found a little life at the end, but too little to matter, and the Grizzlies closed out the match with a 25-8 victory.
Keeping focus in a match like this is something Head Coach Kaileen Redmond was looking for from her squad, and for the most part they delivered.
“They did okay the first and third sets,” she said. “The second set, we got off to a rough start, but we are trying some new things offensively, so I was trying to put us in a position where we could try out some of those new things. We’re just really trying to get playoff ready at this point.”
And with just five regular season matches and a tournament at Mesabi East left on the schedule, the time for additions and adjustments is rapidly winding down.
“We need to try out a few different things offensively,” Redmond said. “We need to be able to run some different hitting options with the hitters that we have available. And then we also are trying to keep our bench ready, too. We did some subbing tonight – I have one primary bench player that we need to keep her fresh and ready to go, and we have another bench player who likes to be in the front row. We’re trying to keep her active and ready to go as well. So, we’re just trying a whole bunch of different things and trying to keep our serve percentage up. We started off our season strong, dwindled a little bit, and now we’re working our way back on the serve percentage.”
The serves were certainly flying where the Grizzlies wanted them go against the Vikings. Lauren Burnett and Carsyn Burnett each fired eight aces, while Pascuzzi was close behind with seven. Lauren Burnett led the team in kills with 12, Carsyn Burnett tallied 14 assists, and Tessa Burnett had five digs.

McGregor
The Grizzlies ran their winning streak to nine on Tuesday with a road win at McGregor.
The winless Mercuries were a surprisingly tough out in the opening set, with North Woods getting the narrow 25-22 win.
Any hopes that the home team could hang with the Grizzlies were dashed in the second and third sets, both won by North Woods with identical 25-10 scores.
Carsyn Burnett put up 20 assists in the match. Lauren Burnett led the team in kills with 10, while Brittin Lappi put up a solid wall at the net with eight blocks. Lauren Burnett and Tessa Burnett had five service aces each.
The Grizzlies had a home match scheduled for Thursday against Northeast Range before hitting the road on Monday for a contest at Chisholm. On Tuesday, the Grizzlies will travel to Ely looking to end a losing streak to the Wolves that goes back to the 2019 season.