By Ellen Shuster

September 25 – North Woods hosted the Northeast Range Nighthawks tonight for their volleyball matchup. Northeast Range came with just one Junior High team and so the Grizzlies’ 7th and 8th graders teamed up and won 2-0 (25-22, 25-16). The 7th graders played the first set and the 8th graders, the second. After the win, the coaches agreed to play a friendly set to give their girls more playing experience. The two Grizzlies teams mixed together to pull off an exciting 28-26 win.

On the other side of the gym, the Junior Varsity were playing an equally close match, but ended up losing 0-2 (22-25, 23-25) in nail-biting sets.

Varsity did not follow the pattern and won their match 3-0 (25-9, 25-13, 25-7) in dominant fashion. A good rally opened the first set with North Woods winning the point. The Grizzlies took control with the first point awarded to the Nighthawks coming off of a Grizzlies’ error. At 10-1 another two errors gave the Nighthawks their next two points, but they were unable to capitalize on their opponent’s mistakes and the Grizzlies took the first set.

The second set started slow and sloppy for the Grizzlies with a bad pass giving the Nighthawks the first point. At 0-3 the Grizzlies could only answer with two points before losing possession again. The serve went back and forth with the score being tied at 4-4 and again at 6-6. Finally, after the Grizzlies reached 12 points, they began to pull ahead and were able to finish the set well. They didn’t back down and took the first five points of the third set. At 11-2 the Nighthawks took a timeout, but there was no stopping the Grizzlies as they took their most commanding lead of the night.

With this win, North Woods goes 9-0 in conference games and are ranked first. On the 29th and 30th they will play the second and third-ranked teams, Chisholm and Ely, in back-to-back away games. Oct. 6 will be their last home game before finals.