Dan Falloon
It’s just one of those things about volleyball.
The Muskie junior girls came as close as possible to winning a set without actually doing so in the first two sets against the Dryden Eagles in the NorWOSSA final Friday in Dryden.
“The first two sets were definitely very exciting,” enthused Muskie coach Jason Cain.
“We had a chance to win it twice, and to not do that kind of hurts,” he admitted.
“That first set was just a tough one to lose.”
After knocking off the Kenora Broncos 3-1 in the best-of-five semi-final showdown earlier Friday, Fort High was bubbly and confident in jumping out to a 20-15 lead in the first set of the final against Dryden, but the Eagles struck back and took the set 27-25.
Then in the second set, the black-and-gold fell short by a 26-24 tally.
The Muskies had led 19-18 at one point, but went point-for-point with the Eagles before the hosts were able to run off a couple in a row to garner the necessary two-point margin to win.
After two sets, though, Fort High had nothing to show for hanging tough as they trailed 2-0.
“They left everything out on the court,” lauded Cain. “Dryden just played strong throughout and ended up taking it.”
The highlight of the second set was an epic rally where Muskie Emily Hyatt made two impressive dives to save the ball and help get it back over to the Eagles’ side of the net.
But Dryden was able to take the ball and put it right back into the Muskie court, eventually dropping one in to take the point and go up by two.
“Those long rallies really come down to the physical conditioning of your team, and eventually someone is going to just run out,” Cain noted.
That rally was a bit of a reflection of how the match went for Fort High, where no matter how many times the Muskies stayed alive, Dryden just was able to nudge out a victory.
After going up 2-0, Dryden sensed a kill and came out blazing in the third set—pulling ahead 9-1 en route to a 25-12 win and NorWOSSA gold.
The Muskies seemed to have held onto some of the momentum they had built up by beating Kenora 25-21, 22-25, 25-22, and 25-21 as the final came about two hours after the semi-final finished.
But the effects of the early-morning match started to kick in during Fort High’s seventh set of the day as the Eagles’ freshness helped them to the relatively simple third-set win.
“We were starting to lose it a little bit,” acknowledged Cain. “That could be partially it.”
The juniors also started to struggle with their serves as the third set progressed, tossing easy points onto the scoreboard for the hosts.
“We didn’t take down the stats for the final but we just missed a lot serves,” Cain noted.
“We certainly served a lot better [in the semi-final].”
Against Kenora, the Muskies took a hard-fought first set, then fell behind 7-0 in the second one before closing the gap to 15-10. They later crawled within four but did not get any closer.
But Fort High took the advantage early in the third and fourth sets, holding off Kenora to win the semi-final showdown.
Cain cited Chantal Jodoin and Caitlin Sande as a pair of players who led the Muskies’ charge. And in Jodoin’s case, the improvement had been noticeable over the last couple of weeks.
“She really turned it on. She could pass anything,” praised Cain.
“Over the last couple of weeks, most of her passes went right into the setter’s hands, and that really helped to turn things around for us.”
As for Sande, one of the team’s captains, Cain said she did just what was expected of her—continuing her steady play from the regular season.
“She was just consistent,” he enthused. “You hear her from the beginning to the end, and she really pumps up our team.”
