The final home volleyball match of the season and the first Section 7A tournament contest for Littlefork-Big Falls lived up to the Vikings’ billing as the top Subsection seed Wednesday night.
L-BF, which had received an opening-round bye, swept No. 9-seeded Nashwauk-Keewatin in three games, 25-19, 25-12, 25-21.
“It feels really good to win — I was nervous coming in as this is my first tournament game ever as a coach,” said Vikings head coach Sarah Bradley. “It was kind of a sense of relief, a little bit, getting it over with.”
Wednesday’s match marked the second time this season L-BF won against N-K, which hosted the Oct. 6 regular season match that the Spartans lost to the Vikings in four games.
“I think that we kind of picked up where we left off,” Bradley said. “We came out strong. We made a few mental errors in that last game, but outside of that we still fought pretty hard, so I’m happy with it.”
Two L-BF players recorded double-digit kills. Brooke Millerbernd had 12 kills and nine digs, while DyAna Imhof had 11 kills, six blocks and three ace serves.
Other statistical leaders for the Vikings included: Chelsey Ziemba, seven kills and four ace serves; Marissa Siltman, six kills and four blocks; Courtney Pfeifer, six kills; Paige DeLack, 31 set assists and seven digs; and Breann Larson, 11 digs.
L-BF advanced to play in Friday night’s match in Hibbing against the No. 4 seed, North Woods, which defeated No. 5-seeded Chisholm in five games Wednesday.
Results from Friday’s match, which took place after today’s edition of The Journal went to press, will be published in the Nov. 2 paper and also posted on-line beforehand at www.ifallsjournal.com.
The winner between L-BF and North Woods plays in the Section 7A semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2 at Duluth Denfeld High School against the winner of Friday’s match between South Ridge and Northeast Range.
