Hibbing returns favor at CLC
COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL
Northern Division teams just take turns beating each other.
Three weeks ago the Central Lakes College Raiders played without injured setter Rachel Pfeffer when they traveled to Hibbing and went on to beat the Cardinals 3-2.
Wednesday night, the Cardinals, ranked seventh in NJCAA Division III, visited Brainerd and knocked off the Raiders 3-1 as the second half of the season got under way.
Hibbing coach Mike Turnbull doesn't believe his team is No. 7 in the country.
"But I think this is proof, pretty much, that the top five teams in our division, three or four of them are some of the better teams in the country right now," he said. It's going to be like this, I think, the whole second half.
Central Lakes College Raiders Kaitlyn Roerick (left), Kirstie Grill and Tika Nichols protected the net against Hibbing Wednesday night. Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey» Purchase reprints of this photo.
"I would say the top five teams, below that no, but the rest of us are all capable of doing this to each other. I don't think anybody is going to flat out drill somebody unless somebody doesn't show up."
CLC coach Jane Peterson said her team's consistency didn't show up Wednesday.
"We haven't been able to be consistent," she said. "Rachel (sprained an ankle), then had a toenail cut off, and didn't play for a few practices. We haven't had chance to be a consistent team, and that makes it hard when things are tight. The whole trust factor is hard to come by when you haven't been consistently playing together on the court. Hopefully, in the next couple weeks we'll have a chance to do that, play all together all the time.
"I think someone watching could see that either of these teams could win this match. The same will be true when we play Mesabi (Saturday), the same will be true next Wednesday when we play Northland. No one will be beating each other by a whole lot, I don't think."
The Raiders lost the match but made it a battle.
Hibbing 3, CLC 1
The key: Breanna Chamernick had 15 kills and 23 digs for Hibbing.
Division: CLC 5-3, Hib 6-2
Overall: CLC 9-6, Hib 13-9
Next: Vermilion at CLC 6:30 p.m. Friday.
They lost the first game 25-22 as Hibbing made countless saves and had several clutch digs.
CLC rallied in the second game, which was tied four times, and pulled away for a 25-17 win.
The third game was a seesaw battle and was tied five times, the last at 24-24 when Hibbing scored two points for the win.
Hibbing led the finale wire to wire but the Raiders wouldn't go away before losing 25-22.
"They gave us opportunities," Peterson said. "We didn't give up, which would have been bad if we would have. I told them that (Thursday) would not be very fun if we were just going to give up and let someone come in here and beat us."
The victory moved Hibbing ahead of CLC in the division standings. The Cardinals are now 6-2 and CLC is 5-3. Peterson said it's the first time since 2002 that CLC hasn't been first or second in the division.
"We're used to winning, we're used to winning easily," she said.
"It's hard to sustain a winning culture," she added. "There's eight new people on the team ... That whole winning culture thing that people might assume they're stepping into, every year when it's such a new team, it's starting over.
"You could see Hibbing's a team that wants to win, they know how to win, they know how not to give up. I don't know that they're a better team than us but they certainly wanted to win at the right time more than we did."
Hibbing 25 17 26 25
Central Lakes 22 25 24 22
Central Lakes statistics
Kayla Atkinson 1 dig
Rachel Pfeffer 4 kills, 35 set assists, 3 ace serves, 11 digs, 1 block
Erica Feldewerd 13 kills, 2 ace serves
Jenna Terhaar 9 kills, 2 digs, 1 block
Tika Nichols 2 kills, 1 ace serve, 11 digs
Kirstie Grill 10 kills, 3 digs, 2 blocks
Christine Malm 1 ace serve, 14 digs
Krystle Hamilton 21 digs
Kaitlyn Roerick 8 kills, 2 set assists
Hibbing leaders
Andrea Miller 13 digs
Samantha Lindfors 9 kills
Daish VanOverbeke 10 kills
Kelly Hams 33 set assists
Breanna Chamernick 15 kills, 23 digs
MIKE BIALKA may be reached at mike.bialka@brainerddispatch.com or at 855-5861.