Joey Payeur
Bad serving put the Muskie senior girls’ volleyball team in a bad spot.
Then Chelsea Kabatay decided to gear down to help put the points up.
Fort High fought back from a 24-20 deficit in the fourth set thanks to Kabatay fuelling a 6-0 run with her work from behind the serving line to cap a 3-1 victory over the Dryden Eagles in NorWOSSA action here Tuesday afternoon.
The set scores were 25-17, 25-20, 19-25, and 26-24.
“I just wanted to put the serves in so I took a lot of power off,” noted Kabatay.
“I was floating them in there just aiming for the holes.”
Muskie head coach Shelly Kabatay pointed to the great work on defence by the Muskies (2-1) as the key to overcoming the Eagles (2-1) and moving into a tie for first place.
“We worked on it in practice and it really helped today [Tuesday],” said the coach, whose team now won two of three matches (including one in a pre-season tournament) against the 14-time defending champion Eagles.
In junior girls’ volleyball play, Fort High (1-2) nearly recovered from being two sets down but ran out of steam in falling 3-2 to Dryden (3-0) in a battle for top spot in NorWOSSA.
The set scores were 26-24, 25-23, 22-25, 24-26, and 15-11.
“Serves were the difference today,” conceded Muskie coach Shana Windigo, whose squad missed 28 during the match.
“Also, the team is either getting too down on themselves or too excited,” she added.
“But that comes with more experience, especially with all the Grade 9s we have.”
Meanwhile, it was happy times for both Muskie boys’ basketball teams Tuesday against Dryden.
The senior squad used some good inside play from Jacob Empey, and a clutch three-pointer from Liam Metke in the final two minutes, to hold off the Eagles 47-38.
Empey had a team-high 12 points for the first-place Muskies (3-0).
Dryden sits in second place (1-2).
As for the junior boys, they saved their best for last—racking up 19 points in the fourth quarter en route to a 64-45 win over Dryden.
Fort High (3-0) bolted out to a 14-4 start after one quarter and never looked back against the cellar-dwelling Eagles (0-3).
Aaron Bujold didn’t hit the 30-point mark for a third-straight game but still compiled a game-high 24.
Kobi Ward netted 15 while Sekina Scheibler added 10.
All four court teams were in Kenora today to face the Broncos.
They don’t play at home again until Feb. 4 against those same Broncos.
