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Grizzlies romp in season debut

David Colburn
Posted 8/31/22

FIELD TWP- The North Woods volleyball team opened the season with a convincing 3-0 shellacking of Mt. Iron-Buhl at home on Monday. It was a performance that has Head Coach Kandi Olson excited about …

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Grizzlies romp in season debut

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FIELD TWP- The North Woods volleyball team opened the season with a convincing 3-0 shellacking of Mt. Iron-Buhl at home on Monday. It was a performance that has Head Coach Kandi Olson excited about the new season.
“I knew we had a lot of kids who worked in the offseason to develop the skills that we needed out of them,” Olson said. “Throughout all their years together they’ve always put in that extra time. Some of these seniors have sat behind people for a long time, and their time was coming. They knew it was coming. I knew that I would have something pretty special this year.”
The Rangers were clearly unprepared to deal with the Grizzlies’ service game at the outset, as North Woods constantly kept them off balance by mixing hard flat serves and drop serves placed with precision to run away with a 25-9 rout in the first game.
“We’re going to have a tough serving team,” Olson said. “We have several players that just have great court sense and know where to put the ball.”
The Grizzlies got out to a 12-4 lead in the second game before MI-B finally adjusted and made a short run to get back to within five, 14-9. North Woods never looked ruffled as they maintained that edge and claimed a 25-19 victory.
The Grizzlies found themselves in a battle early in the third, as the Rangers initially took the lead and trailed just 13-12 after officials reversed a call that initially would have put North Woods up by three. But a five-point run with senior Skyler Yernatich serving was the high point in a 12-2 Grizzlies’ run that closed out the game and the match 25-14.
Olson said that this is a team that doesn’t get easily rattled.
“They have this inner calm about them,” Olson said. “That shows in their play where they can just play it out till the end, and they never quit until that ball is completely dead.”
That calm may come from the fact that the Grizzlies’ 11-player varsity roster included five seniors and four juniors.
Hannah Kinsey is the senior with the most experience, Olson said.
“She’s always had awesome energy on the court, but this year she’s developed some strength that she hasn’t had, and I loved seeing that show in game one,” Olson said. “I can only imagine where she’s going to be by the end of the season.”
Yernatich has always been a force on the court, Olson said.
“We can always trust that when the ball goes to her she’s going to do something solid with it, and defensively, she’s top notch,” Olson said. “But she’ll also open some eyes in the front row this year.”
Karah Scofield is one of those seniors who has bided her time and is expected to play a key role this year.
“Kara’s played different roles I’ve needed her to play every year, so she’s got a lot of court knowledge,” Olson said. “She knows how to play basically every position on the court.”
Cooper Antikainen and Angeline Lilya round out the Grizzlies’ group of seniors.
Junior Tori Olson has made a mark in past seasons with her hitting, but with the many options Coach Olson has this season, she’s wearing the libero jersey this year.
“She started out that way in her career on varsity, and she really learned how to dig some of those really serious kills,” Olson said. “We’re going to capitalize on that defensive skill by putting her in the back row to help set up all these other people. And you can see that she’s always got an opposite color jersey on the bench if I need her for a different role as well, because she’s got a lot of experience.”
The Grizzlies said goodbye to graduating senior setter Morgan Burnett last year, but juniors Maddie Dantes and Talise Goodsky have stepped right into her shoes, Olson said.
“I think everyone thought we were going to drop off a little bit,” Olson said. “But we had two kids ready to take that spot. And we haven’t even seen the best out of Maddie yet.”
Addy Hartway rounds out the juniors, giving the Grizzlies another strong returning hitter from last year who also displays good finesse around the net.
And while the Grizzles don’t have any sophomores in the lineup, two freshmen, Lauren Burnett and Isabel Pascuzzi, landed spots on the varsity and will likely see plenty of playing time.
Olson said that she has the players necessary to implement a rotation that will be strong on defense, and that in turn should complement the Grizzlies’ offense.
“Now we can give some of our offensive people a break,” Olson said. “They don’t have to spend as much time on the back row anymore because we have such good balance and depth. When they get to the front row, they can give it everything they’ve got.”
The Grizzlies had a Tuesday night home match against International Falls before taking a brief break going into the Labor Day weekend. Their first road trip of the season will be on Tuesday, Sept. 6 when they travel to Bigfork.