Eagles sweep Muskie spikers

The Muskie girls’ volleyball teams are glad they won’t be returning to Dryden again after both the seniors and juniors were swept last Thursday in their last NorWOSSA away games of the season.
The junior girls lost their first two sets by painfully close scores, falling 27-25 and 29-27, before bottoming out with a 25-13 loss in the third one.
The seniors simply were outmatched, dropping all three sets by scores of 25-6, 25-9, and 25-13.
The juniors’ record in NorWOSSA play fell to an even 3-3 while the seniors remain winless.
“We came out pretty flat against Dryden. The first score represents that,” said senior head coach Duane Roen. “That Dryden’s a tough team this year, so we just try to minimize our mistakes and capitalize on the few opportunities.”
Roen said his squad definitely stepped up their game as the match wore on—even if it didn’t manage to change the outcome.
“I was happy with the third set effort,” he remarked. “The first couple sets, just so many mental errors. . . .
“But we’re in the same boat as everyone else in the league, and in the area there’s not many teams that can pull 20 points against them [Dryden].
“They’re certainly not going to give any sets away, and I can’t blame them.”
The juniors put up a much stronger fight against the Eagles—even if they didn’t manage to win any more sets than the seniors.
Roen, who also coaches the juniors on the road, said the match was very much the Muskies’ to lose.
“The junior girls should have, and easily could have, won both of those first two sets, and when given the opportunity to seal the deal, they were just making mental errors.
“Serving into the net, hitting it out, just things you can’t do,” he said.
“I completely replaced the entire line [in the third set] trying to get some sort of a rhythm back,” Roen added. “I don’t know where the team went in the third set, but they certainly weren’t out there to play.”
The juniors led in their first set, but were unable to close it out. In the second, they battled back from a precarious 24-17 deficit but again came up short.
“They couldn’t seal it, they couldn’t get those two points you need to win,” Roen noted.
“I think they were a little frustrated after the second set, just couldn’t get back on top of things . . . and Dryden came out firing on all cylinders in that third set.”
Both squads don’t resume NorWOSSA play until Thursday, Feb. 7 when they host the Kenora Broncos.
Then they’ll play their final match of the regular season early the following week here against the Eagles—to make up for ones cancelled due to inclement weather last month—before the NorWOSSA playoffs are held Feb. 14 in Kenora.