The scores couldn’t have been any closer Wednesday night when all five volleyball games were decided by two points in the Rainy River Community College gym.
The Voyageurs ended up losing their Minnesota College Athletic Conference match to Hibbing, 25-23, 25-27, 25-23, 23-25, 13-15.
“That was intense...,” said RRCC head coach Mel Millerbernd. “(Hibbing) had a couple of tough servers and a couple of good hitters, but I thought we handled them pretty well.”
RRCC’s statistical leaders included: Nakita Estling, five ace serves, 30 set assists, 24 digs; Rachel Clark, 30 digs; Wilma Oombash, nine kills; and Emily Jerome, eight kills.
After winning the first game, the Voyageurs took a 10-4 lead in game two, before Hibbing rallied back and won.
RRCC also won game three and led 7-2 in game four, before Hibbing waged its comeback to force the match to the fifth and deciding game up to 15 points.
“We had a little lead in a couple of those games where you’ve got to put it away, and we always let them back in,” Millerbernd said. “You just can’t do that. You’ve got to finish it when you’ve got the chance.”
Hibbing led by as much as five in the final game, but the Voyageurs battled back to within a point before falling by two.
Millerbernd said errors such as missed serves proved to be costly in the outcome of the match.
“You can’t miss,” she said. “You can’t give them easy points.
“We’ve got to work on our blocking, our net play. We just didn’t block enough balls to intimidate them.”
The Voyageurs close out their third home match of the week today when the host Central Lakes at noon.
