Spartans sink Lumberjacks

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CLOQUET — A year ago, the Cloquet volleyball team won the Lake Superior Conference title, never losing a single match.

This fall, they’re 0-for-1.

Failing to fire on all cylinders in their LSC opener, the Lumberjacks were took care of by visiting Superior 3-1 (22-25, 25-9, 28-30, 18-25) Thursday night in prep volleyball at the Cloquet High School gymnasium.

Cloquet – last year’s outright conference champs – looked sluggish throughout the engagement, making multiple service and attack errors, as well net violations and even being called out of rotation once in the first set.

Those mistakes cost the Lumberjacks the opening set 25-22, as Superior notched the final three points to take an early advantage.

Cloquet responded in the second 25-9, never trailing and leading by as many as 17, to knot things up.

But a thrilling 30-28 third set went the Spartans’ way in perhaps the most-thrilling action of the year for both teams. Keyed up after their extra-point win, Superior rolled in the fourth 25-18, closing up the match.

It was Cloquet’s first LSC loss dating back to October 2009.

The win kept the Spartans (9-2) unbeaten in conference play this fall, while it snapped the Lumberjacks’ (6-4) previous four-match winning streak.

Superior was guided by senior Danielle Madgzas’ nine kills, while junior Alison Wainionpaa recorded 20 set assists. Senior Ally Keute was also solid with seven digs, six kills and six ace serves, while junior Taylor Johnson put up six kills, five blocks and four digs in the win.

Cloquet got 32 set assists and 11 digs from freshman Alex Oakes, while senior Maddie Kiehn had 14 kills and 14 digs. Senior Emily Fossen added seven kills, sophomore Olivia Mayasich six and junior Kristie Wappes five in defeat.

The Lumberjacks will next be in action Monday when they travel to powerful Hibbing, while heading to LSC foe Duluth Marshall Thursday.

Tags: sports, volleyball, cloquet