After their first two games against Denfeld on Thursday night, the Cloquet volleyball team was on the brink of elimination in the best-of-three match. Instead, the Jacks came out with a vengeance and managed to come away with a 3-2 victory over the Hunters.
"I think in every game you have two aspects to deal with - the physical and the mental," explained Cloquet coach Heidi McKay. "Mentally, we came out flat in the first two games and that had actually happened in our previous couple of matches prior to the Denfeld game. That is not something you want to see as a coach, but I was just glad the girls turned things around."
It may have been a little persuasiveness by McKay that helped her team see the light going into game three.
"I just told them that one of their goals was to win the conference and they needed to beat Denfeld to do it," recalled McKay. "I think the girls finally realized that if they didn't step it up a notch they were going to lose."
The level of play for Cloquet turned up in game three mainly due to the intensity level of Taylor Sautbine who, according to McKay, carried the team on her back for the match.
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"She really turned it up in game three," stated McKay. "She had some pretty amazing stats. The nice thing about our team is that key person can vary from night to night and we don't have to just rely on one player to get the job done."
On the physical side, the Jacks had 10 hitting errors in the first game alone.
"It's hard to hit a negative percentage and win a game," explained McKay. "We were lucky to keep it as a close as we did."
Sautbine led the Cloquet attack with 12 kills, 20 digs and 26 set assists, Alyssa Wappes added 12 kills and 19 digs, Montana Vichorek finished with 13 kills and 33 digs and Danielle Beck chipped in with seven kills.
- Over the weekend, the Jacks won the Duluth Marshall Tournament with wins over Superior, Proctor, Denfeld and Ashland.
"The championship game with Ashland was probably the highlight," mentioned McKay. "The first game went 31-29."
- Tuesday night, the Jacks traveled to McKay's alma mater and took on the Barnum Bombers in a match that Cloquet won 3-1.
Vichorek finished with 16 kills and five blocks, Wappes recorded 10 kills and 19 digs, Sautbine recorded 31 set assists and Brianna Henagin added 19 digs for the Jacks.
Barnum got a strong night from Katrina Newman who had 11 kills and six blocks, Brigitte Veser added four kills and seven set assists, and Hannah Wekseth added eight set assists.
