Norse top Raiders
Virginia, MN – September 16, 2011 was the last time the Norse left the court with a win over the Central Lakes Raiders, 24 times since the Raiders emerged victorious. That streak came to a crashing halt Wednesday night at the William Wirtanen Gymnasium as the Norse staved off a furious Raider rally to pick up a key MCAC Northern Division win 3-2 (25-21, 25-17, 20-25, 12-25, 15-13).
The Norse started out strong using a great serve receive to comfortably run their offense hitting at a nice 0.338 hitting percentage. Kaelynn Kudis established herself as an offensive force early on collecting 11 kills in the first two sets. When the Raiders tried to slow down Kaelynn other Norse players emerged with Kylee Huusko, Jazz Svaleson and Johanna Westby picking up kills when the Raider defense focused too much on Kudis. In addition to the offense the Norse serve receive and defense helped the Norse start strong as any Raider attack was defended by the back row of Abbigail Shuster and Steph Zimmer digging up the ball or the blocking of Westby and Kudis stifling the Raider hitters.
However, the momentum from the first two sets turned dramatically as the Raiders fought back furiously using both their service game and a faster attack to knock the Norse on their heels. The main players for the Raiders in their comeback were Middle Hitter Megan Rinicker attacking the ball, Outside Hitter Kalli Papenfuss, and Defensive Specialist Gabbie Enneking at the service line.
With the match all square it came down to the fifth set. The Norse regrouped after a rough 4th set to lead 8-4 at the switch eventually extending the lead to 13-6. The Raiders, though would not go quietly rallying to tie it up at 13-13 there a great Norse defensive stand forced a Raider hitting error followed by a wild rally which saw the Norse digging several Raider attacks eventually forcing yet another Raider hitting error to win the match.
In the mini battle between the MCAC Offensive Player of the Week Megan Rinicker and MCAC Defensive Player of the Week Kaelynn Kudis. Kudis emerged as the clear winner collecting 25 kills, 10 digs and 5 blocks while hitting a coolly efficient .451 hitting percentage.
The Norse improve to 12-7 overall (9-3 MCAC North). The Norse return to action Friday as the face the MN North-Itasca Vikings at the William Wirtanen Gymnasium at 6:30 PM.