FIELD TWP – North Woods knew they faced a challenge as they hit the road last Thursday for a match against Mesabi East in Aurora. Their opponents weren’t merely named the Giants – they had a tall, aggressive front line with a formidable blocking attack.
“They were going to put up a very tall wall in front of us and we were going to have to figure out how to get around that,” Grizzlies Head Coach Kandi Olson said. “It took a few minutes to figure it out, but our kids realized they could also put up as effective a wall.”
The result was a hotly contested, five set match won 3-2 (12-25, 25-13, 25-16, 16-25, 12-15) by Mesabi East, but the Grizzlies had no intention of going down quietly.
Defense was key to the Grizzlies finding their balance, and Skylar Yernatich, Morgan Burnett, and Tori Olson made sure the team had opportunities to flip to offense by getting 16, 13, and 15 digs respectively. Addy Hartway, Hannah Kinsey and Zoe Trip created obstacles for the Giants’ hitters and “really played tough at the net,” Olson said.
“We had some outstanding defensive play,” Olson said. “Our offense can’t happen without that.”
Counted on from the first of the season to be a team leader, Burnett stepped up on offense, too, collecting nine set assists and eight kills. Olivia Udovich had a strong outing getting the ball to her teammates, chalking up a team-high 16 set assists.
“She was pretty critical to our offense,” Olson said.
Trip led the Grizzlies in kills with seven, followed by Kinsey with five and Hartway with four.
“Our serving was outstanding yet again,” Olson said. “It’s so critical to momentum to make sure you get that serve over and our serving has been just great this year.”
While two matches on their schedule were canceled last week, Olson said the progress of her young team in finding their roles and learning how to play different positions and in changing lineups has been remarkable, and their performance against Mesabi East was evidence of that.
“To see our girls go five matches and stay super competitive and focused all five matches was exciting to watch,” Olson said. “They knew at any moment they had the tools to win that match. I think anyone who came to that game left there saying ‘Wow.’ They’re really starting to work together in a great way.”