Joey Payeur
In the last home game of the season, and the final one for its four veteran players, the Rainy River Community College Voyageurs gave their fans a memory to cherish Tuesday night.
RRCC shook off a mid-match lull to fight back and eventually overcome the visiting Itasca Vikings (Grand Rapids) by a 3-1 count to break a second-place tie in the MCAC Northern Division standings.
The set scores were 25-11, 17-25, 26-24, and 25-15.
Former Muskie and Voyageurs’ co-captain Cassandra Moffitt, one of the quartet playing their farewell match on home court, had 10 kills to go along with six digs and three blocks.
RRCC used its seventh-straight overall win, and eighth-consecutive conference victory, to clinch a berth in the Region 13B tournament Nov. 4 for the second year in a row.
“It’s exciting that it was the last home game but I’m just glad that we won,” said Moffitt about the Voyageurs, who are 10-2 in division play and 16-8 overall.
After splitting the first two sets, Itasca built a 24-20 lead in the third one to sit within a point of leading the match.
But RRCC refused to back down, with Moffitt bashing a kill to fire up her team and spark a 6-0 run that won the set.
“What turned it around in that set was that we started to talk and communicate more, and started to hit the ball,” noted Moffitt.
“Almost all of us are good hitters,” she added.
“We’re able to switch it up so that it’s not one person always hitting.”
Voyageurs’ coach Mel Millerbernd gave a big sigh of relief after her team pulled out what could end up being a crucial win with two regular-season matchups left before the regional tournament.
“They got down on each other a bit in that third set, but I told them good teams find a way to win and we did,” she remarked.
“We knew Itasca has a good team and wouldn’t let up even if we got the lead.”
Millerbernd agreed the team was peaking at the right time of the season, but said some fine-tuning still is necessary.
“Defensively, we have to go to another level,” she stressed.
“You saw in that fourth set that Itasca tried the strategy of tipping us to death and if it had been closer, I would have been worried.”
The Voyageurs next head to Coon Rapids as the Anoka-Ramsey Golden Rams host the inaugural MCAC Crossover tournament today and Friday, which will see RRCC face only MCAC Southern Division teams.
First up is the nationally third-ranked Ridgewater Warriors (Willmar), followed by the Riverland Blue Devils (Austin Lea), the Western Tech Cavaliers (La Crosse, Wis.,) and the St. Cloud Tech Cyclones.
The last is a rematch from last month’s tournament in Wahpeton, N.D.
“We lost to them and I felt we were rusty in that game,” noted Millerbernd.
RRCC concludes its regular season with away matches Oct. 28 against the first-place Central Park Raiders (Brainerd) and Oct. 29 versus the Northland Pioneers (Thief River Falls).
