Both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat were on display in the Proctor High School gym on Friday night when Littlefork-Big Falls’ volleyball team won its Section 7A quarterfinal match over Cherry in five games, 25-16, 14-25, 25-23, 12-25, 17-15.
“We haven’t won a five-game match beyond 15 points (in game five) since I’ve been coaching,” said L-BF’s second-year head coach Sarah Bradley. “To do it in playoffs will take a lot out of you.”
The Vikings, who fell behind 5-0 in the fifth and deciding game, rallied back and had two match-point opportunities to defeat the Tigers. Cherry thwarted L-BF’s first chance to win and had its own chance for a match point, before an ace serve by the Vikings’ DyAna Imhof capped off three consecutive L-BF points to advance to the semifinal match at 6 p.m. today in Virginia against Carlton.
“I thought that the girls did a great job winning game five,” Bradley said. “It is always a testament to them — their mental toughness — each of them, that they’re able to come out and they’re able win that game five, especially when we started off down a few points.”
L-BF, which improved to 20-3-1 and is seeded No. 2 in the north Subsection, dominated the net against the No. 3-seeded Cherry in game one when the Vikings won by nine points.
The Tigers began to tame L-BF’s offensive attack by blocking several spike attempts and winning games two and four by double digits. L-BF had led for most of the closely-contested game three before winning by two.
“That’s playoff volleyball,” Bradley said. “You can’t ask for a more intense game, and that’s the way it should be when it’s win or go home.”
Statistical leaders for the Vikings included: Imhof, 16 kills, three blocks, three aces; Abby Thompson, 12 kills, five blocks; Brooke Millerbernd, 10 kills, 33 digs; Courtney Pfeifer, 33 digs; and Breann Larson, 30 digs.
Bradley said Cherry played much better than when the Vikings won Aug. 28 in four games in their regular season match in the L-BF gym.
“This was a different team than we saw earlier on in the season,” Bradley said. “They’ve put a good team together. They’ve got some good hitters. They’ve got some solid defense.”
Bradley said Carlton, the top-seeded team in the south Subsection that defeated Cromwell to face L-BF in the semifinals, also has a good team.
“They’ve got a couple good hitters. They’ve got a good outside hitter,” she said. “They only have one senior (Clarissa Nelson), so hopefully our two seniors (Pfeifer and Chelsey Ziemba) can kind of give that extra push and help us into the Section finals.”
The winner of today’s semifinal between L-BF and Carlton will advance to the Section 7A championship game at 4 p.m. Saturday on the University of Minnesota Duluth campus to face the winner of today’s other semifinal match in Virginia between North Woods, seeded No. 1 in the north Subsection, and Northeast Range, the No. 2 seed in the south Subsection.
Saturday’s winner plays in the Class A State Tournament Nov. 8-10 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
“I think our girls are in the hunt,” Bradley said. “They’ve wanted to go to state since we’ve started this season, and they wanted to go to state last year. They have the potential, and they’re putting it all together.”
