Thursday night’s local volleyball rivalry between Littlefork-Big Falls and International Falls in the FHS gym ended up being a lopsided match in favor of L-BF.
The Vikings swept the Broncos in three straight games, 25-14, 25-19, 25-11.
The match victory improved L-BF’s season record to 3-0, while the Falls tasted defeat for the first time in 2012 and dropped to 2-1.
“I know the girls really enjoy beating — what I think they consider their biggest rival — the Falls,” said Vikings head coach Sarah Bradley. “I’m just happy to get another win. OK, 3-0, it’s nice to be there.”
Bradley said working the team’s strengths was key to L-BF’s victory.
“We put up a good block, which helped,” she said. “We made our serves and we hit the ball. We didn’t get caught tipping a lot.”
Two Viking hitters recorded double-digit kills. DyAna Imhof led L-BF with 15 kills. Abby Thompson added 11 kills and also had two blocks and three ace serves.
Other statistical leaders for the Vikings included: Brooke Millerbernd, seven kills, 14 digs; Courtney Pfeifer, 13 digs, two aces; and Emily Knaeble, 12 digs.
Falls head coach Erin Shikowsky said L-BF was able to hold the momentum for the majority of the match.
“We didn’t do a lot of little things that great that we needed to, to compete with a team of their caliber,” she said. “We’ll be working on a lot of little things. For example, just our passing, and from there being able to run our offense.”
Shikowsky said she didn’t like how the Broncos played Thursday night on defense.
“I think in the past we’ve been a lot scrappier and lot more defensive, so we’re going to be working on that in the future,” she said.
Tessa Wells led the Falls with six kills and three blocks, while Reva Renollet recorded 13 digs and 5 set assists.
The Broncos return to action Tuesday with a road match against North Woods in Cook, while the Vikings will be hosting Bigfork next Tuesday.
