Local Sports

‘A ton of credit’: Kingsford holds off Forest Park for 3-1 win

KINGSFORD -- It was anything but easy. But, in the end, Kingsford was able to hold off an aggressive Forest Park varsity volleyball team for a 3-1 victory (25-15, 13-25, 25-21, 25-19 in front of its home fans at Kingsford High School on Tuesday.

"Tonight, we were lucky to win," said Flivvers coach Jaclynn Kreider. "We were really out of sorts and lacked energy.

"Forest Park did a great job of putting the pressure on us with aggressive serving and attacking," she added. "I give them a ton of credit, as they have come a long way."

On the other hand, Forest Park coach Bobbie Anderson and her players were upbeat about the Lady Trojans' performance.

"I'm really happy with how well we played tonight," Anderson said. "Anytime you see a (Division 2) school on your schedule you can only hope your team will rise to the occasion, and I think we did just that. The girls played hard, they executed our game plan and improved in the areas we have been working on.

"We came ready to play, and we kept the energy up," said senior libero Ashylnn Kannich, who finished with 15 digs, five aces and two assists in the match. "Even when we were down, we kept fighting. We knew Kingsford was going to be a tough match for us, but we are proud of our performance."

Ema Stepien led the FP attack with 10 kills, while Leah Feldhausen added eight, Audrey Franz contributed six and Ava Fischer had five. Feldhausen recorded two blocks, Charlie Larson posted 26 assists and Stepien and Franz each chipped in with 11 digs, while Fischer added 10.

Maddy Kreider paced the Flivvers with six aces, 11 assists, 16 digs, three kills and one block, with Alyssa Larson tallying one ace, six assists, seven digs and one kill. Kailey Sundquist added two aces, three digs, five kills and four blocks in the win.

Other contributors for Kingsford included Jenna Viau (3 aces, 7 digs, 2 kills), Elaina Bortolini (1 ace, 4 digs, 3 kills and 1 block), Laura Bracket (1 ace, 2 digs, 2 kills and 1 block), Bryonna Sanders (1 ace, 8 digs) and Anna Bortolini (3 digs, 5 kills).

Coach Kreider said the Flivvers will need to improve when hosting Houghton tonight.

"We need to play better Thursday or Houghton is going beat us," she added. "They have too many weapons and a solid defense, so we can't make that many mistakes again."

BRONCOS 3,

NORDICS 0

FELCH TOWNSHIP -- The North Dickinson Nordics struggled to close out games, allowing visiting Bark River-Harris to walk off the court at North Dickinson County High School with a 3-0 sweep (25-16, 25-20, 25-20) in varsity volleyball action Tuesday.

"We hit that 20-point mark and just got stuck," Nordics coach Taylor Johnson said of the final two sets. "We just couldn't get over the hump."

Johnson said a quality Broncos team also deserved credit for the sweep.

"Bark River is a good hitting team," she added. "We were a little bit intimidated at first, I think.

"We came out a little bit slow."

Micah Lindholm led the Nordics' defense of their home court with seven kills, five blocks and 14 digs. Aiden Hord chipped in three kills, a pair of blocks, 14 digs and was 100% serving.

Hord wasn't the only North Dickinson player to shine at the serving line, with both Mya Grunlund (1 kill, 10 digs) and Makayla Hoffman hitting 100% of their serves.

Despite taking the loss, Johnson said she believes her squad continues to improve and is playing team better the second time through the Skyline Central Conference schedule.

"We're moving in the right direction," she said.

WOLVES 3, JETS 0

CARNEY -- The Carney-Nadeau Wolves overcame a slow start in a 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-5) volleyball triumph over the visiting North Central Jets on Tuesday night.

"I thought we played well overall," said C-N coach Steve Kedsch. "We missed five of our first seven serves, but the kids cleaned it up and did a pretty good job. That was very uncharacteristic for us. We're usually a good serving team."

Hailey DeGrave had six-point service runs in each of the first two sets and added a 10-point run in the third.

She finished with six aces and five kills and Samantha Kedsch led the Wolves with six aces, four kills, 19 assists and six digs. Mariska Laurila collected nine kills.

"Hailey's run gave us a 10-0 lead in the first set," said Coach Kedsch. "It was also a real good night for Sam. She served and passed the ball well."