Momentum shift costs senior spikers

The Muskie senior girls’ volleyball team had the Kenora Broncos on the ropes in the NorWOSSA final there last Friday but they couldn’t deliver the knockout blow.
After winning the first two games of the best-of-five match 15-8 and 15-13, passing well, setting near perfection, and hitting the ball with authority, the proverbial wheels fell off–in a big way.
Tied 13-13 in the third set, a controversial call against talented middle blocker Siobhan Devlin gave the Broncos the point and the 14-13 lead. Then they got the clinching point for the 15-13 win to stave off elimination.
That changed the momentum of the match. The Broncos won the next game with relative ease 15-7, then completed the dramatic comeback with a 15-6 win in the fifth and deciding game.
Kenora now advances to the NWOSSAA final.
“It was close at the end but when they won [the third set], the crowd went nuts and the momentum changed,” said Muskie head coach Rick Wiedenhoeft.
“When they won the game, it really put a hole in our sails–a pin in our balloon,” he admitted.
“Our passing and that was good until we lost that third one and then we started to lose the momentum, our confidence, and our intensity,” he added.
“Our passing deserted us and we couldn’t run our attack, and at the same time, they started to pick up their game.”
Karen Harris, a middle blocker for the Muskies, closed out her high school career with the loss. She said it was a difficult way to finish her last game in a Fort High uniform.
“I really think we played our hearts out and we had the momentum but once we lost that first one, then we lost the momentum,” she noted.
“I knew we had the capability to win the first two [games] but it was very frustrating to lose, especially because it was my last game,” she lamented.
Despite the loss, Wiedenhoeft praised the play of Harris, the blocking of Devlin and Marsha Walsh, and the setting of Laureen Cousineau as being strong all day, particularly when they dominated the Dryden Eagles 15-8 and 15-2 in the best-of-three semi-final earlier Friday.
“It was really important for us to win the semi-final, and it turned out to be our best volleyball game of the year,” he enthused. “We were just clicking, and we carried that into the final.”
On the bright side, Wiedenhoeft expected the Muskies to be just as strong next season with 10 of 11 players returning. While he admitted it will be a “big hole to fill in the middle” with the loss of Harris, he’s enthused about the prospects of six talented junior players moving up to the senior squad.
Harris agreed the team’s future looks just as bright for next season.
“They should have an amazing team next year,” she said. “This year was [better] with Mr. Wiedenhoeft as coach. It was such a great year.”