The Pine River-Backus volleyball team closed out its regular season by defeating host Walker-Hackensack-Akeley on Oct. 16. The Tigers, 23-2 overall, were scheduled to play Sebeka in the second round of the Section 7AA tournament on Tuesday, Oct. 23.
PR-B 3, W-H-A 1
The Tigers fell behind 21-10 and lost the opening game 26-24. PR-B then rallied to win three straight by scores of 25-20, 25-7 and 25-20 as Laura Laposky and Taylor Sheley combined for 28 digs; Laposky added nine ace serves and Naomi Anderson had nine kills and six blocks.
The outset of the first game was all Wolves as the Tigers could not get on track and W-H-A put up a stout offense - building a 7-2 lead. The Tigers trimmed the deficit to 10-6 on two kills by Sheley and one by Katie Wangberg, but the Wolves again went on a scoring run to lead 21-10. The Tigers put together an admirable run to tie the game 24-24. The key to the rally was the Tigers keeping the ball in play and forcing errors. Krystle Hamilton and Kristina Behrens each added aces and Paige Sepin, Sheley and Crysta Christensen slammed down kills. The Wolves eventually survived the rally to win 26-24.
In the second game, PR-B built a 10-7 lead on two ace serves by Hamilton and a kill by Anderson. Another service fault gave the ball back to the Wolves and they leveled the score at 10 and 11. Laposky next came up to serve and she sped two aces and the Tigers were up 16-11. Wangberg then stepped to the service line and laid down three aces, along with a Sheley kill, and PR-B led 21-12 on way to a 25-20 win.
The third game was all Tigers as they triumphed 25-7. Laposky laid down four aces, Christensen and Behrens each added two aces.
Anderson added three kills and Paige Sepin contributed two.
The final game started out even as the teams traded points to the 4-4 mark. PR-B led 13-5 on the strength of two kills each by Christensen and Sheley. The Wolves rallied with nine of the next 10 points and the game was eventually tied 17-17. The Tigers then scored eight of the last 11 points on aces by Krystle Hamilton, Behrens and Laposky, plus kills by Anderson and Sheley, for a final score of 25-20.
PR-B statistics
Naomi Anderson - 9 kills, 6 blocks, 3 digs
Laura Laposky - 9 ace serves, 15 digs
Taylor Sheley - 8 kills, 13 digs
Katie Wangberg - 6 kills, 3 ace serves, 1 block, 8 digs,
21 set assists
Crysta Christensen 3 kills, 3 ace serves, 2 blocks, 3 digs
Krystle Hamilton - 1 kill, 4 ace serves, 1 block, 12 digs
Paige Sepin - 5 kills, 1 block, 4 digs
Kristina Behrens - 5 ace serves, 4 digs
The Pine River-Backus junior varsity volleyball team lost their match to the Walker-Hackensack-Akeley Wolves - dropping two of three games. The opening game went to the Tigers 25-19, but the last two went to the Wolves by scores of 25-16 and 15-10.
The first game was very even up to the 16-16 point. PR-B then got nine of the last 12 points for the first game victory. The Wolves led all the way in the second game as they built up leads of 8-3, 15-9 and 24-14. In the final game to 15, the Tigers took a 4-2 lead at the outset, but after five W-H-A aces and three kills, the Tigers trailed 10-4 and they could not climb out of that hole.
PR-B statistics
Emalee Arends - 1 kill, 2 aces
Hannah Hulke - 2 kills, 1 ace
Kendra Hamilton - 1 kill, 2 aces
Kelsey Kline - 2 kills
Nikki Tulenchik - 2 kills
Castona Rodriguez - 2 aces
Monica Hamilton - 2 aces
