Volleyball: Cook edges Vikings 3-2

The Vikings are playing well in spurts — they haven’t been swept this season — but they dropped their seventh straight match Thursday in a 3-2 loss to Cook (4-3). The Vikings (1-7) showed some grit with a clutch win in Game 4, but lost handily in Game 5. The scores were 25-20, 10-25, 25-20, 24-26, 15-6.

“We’ve definitely had our chances throughout the season, but for whatever reason we can’t pull out the wins,” Vikings head coach Kim Wimmer said.

Chelsey Ziemba led L-BF with eight kills, DyAna Imhof and Brooke Millerbernd had four kills apiece and Courtney Pfeifer finished with four ace serves. Paige DeLack had the best all-around game for the Vikings with 21 set assists, 20 digs and four ace serves. Millerbernd chipped in with 17 digs.

Wimmer was impressed with her team’s comeback in Game 4, “but now we have to get the win for the entire match,” she added.

Cook was led by Emily Youngstrom’s 16 kills and 18 digs. Darby Youngstrom finished with 13 kills, 21 digs and three ace blocks, Rachel Harmston posted nine kills and 16 digs and Marissa LaPatka, a sophomore making her first varsity start, had five ace serves. Kaylee Malmstrom registered 21 set assists and 13 digs.

“Usually the longer they go, we do start to pull it together,” said Cook head coach Kandi Olson, who admitted the Little Gophers experimented Thursday with an entirely new lineup.

“It looks like it’s going to be good,” she said. “And once they build some confidence, they’re going to be tough.”

All the momentum from the clutch Game 4 victory quickly evaporated for the Vikings in Game 5 when Cook broke a 3-3 tie and never looked back. A block and a kill back-to-back by Emily Youngstrom made it 14-5, and the senior ended the contest one sideout later with a kill.

Wimmer definitely plans to work on more game situations in practice to try and get her team out of this losing funk.

“If we can get confidence, then we can win those tight ones,” she said.