Oct 31, 2024
Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette The Lake Linden-Hubbell Lakes celebrate a point well earned on Tuesday in a game against the Ironwood Red Devils in Lake Linden.
By EDDIE O’NEILL
eoneill@mininggazette.com
LAKE LINDEN- It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but the Lake Linden-Hubbell Lakes volleyball squad got the job done on Tuesday night. They put away the visiting Ironwood Red Devils 3-1 (25-18, 17-25, 25-23, 25-20).
“I am obviously happy with the win, I just wish there was more consistency,” stated Lakes’ coach Joslynn Perala. “We win the first one and then we often put our guard down in the second. We cannot do that against good and solid teams.”
That was certainly the case in this one. The Lakes dominated the first, but seemingly didn’t show up in the second.
In the opening set, the Lakes jumped out to a commanding 8-4 lead. That changed to a six-point difference with Ashlyn Steves on the line. While the Red Devils came back to tie it at 14 and 16, the Lakes won the race to 25 with Steves back on the line. She posted a service run of six to close this one out at 25-18.
Ironwood took their first lead of the night at the start of the second set and did not look back. With Kiaya Graser on the line, they led 10-4. While the Lakes did tie it at 14, 15, and 16, they could not gain an advantage. The Red Devils’ Audra Pawlak kept the Lakes at 17 points while she served her squad to 25 and a win.
“That was definitely our best set,” stated Ironwood’s coach Lisa Fechter. “We have been up and down this season, and that second set was an up. Our downs were our errors- too many. It was rough at the service line.”
Set three was a back-and-forth battle with several lead changes. After being tied at four and five, the Red Devils pushed out to a 10-6 lead and even moved to a 16-9 lead with Bree Delich serving.
The Lakes’ Cleo Milkey seemed to put some wind back in the team’s sails with two aces at 10 and 11. She had four on the night and led with 13 kills. Alli Corrigan then served the Lakes to 19-19 tie and the race to 25 was on. It was again knotted at 22 and 23 before the Lakes pushed ahead with a two-point win.
Momentum was with the Lakes headed into set four. They jumped out to a 6-4 lead and kept that past well into mid-set. With Isabella Tampas on the line, a 21-20 lead morphed into a match-set victory at 25-20.
UP NEXT
The Lakes will close out their 2024 regular-season campaign tonight at Dollar Bay-Tamarack City. First serve set for 6:30 p.m.
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