Thief River Falls let a first-set lead slip away, but the Prowlers came back to beat visiting Frazee 3-1 Tuesday in the first high school volleyball match between the two teams.
A 26-28, 25-21, 25-13, 25-21 decision was the fifth straight victory for the Prowlers following an opening night loss to Roseau.
It started well for the hosts, who had Set 1 leads of 5-0, 10-4, 20-17 and 24-21. The Hornets, however, didn’t quit. They kept play going despite set-point Thief River Falls serves at 25-24 and 26-25 before finally going ahead and winning on two errors by the Prowlers.
Thief River Falls had similar starts with 6-0 leads in both the second and third sets.
Frazee pulled even in the second set at 9-9 and tied it again at 21-21, but could not take the lead. A shot by Mikki Erickson fell in for a 24-21 Thief River Falls advantage and a Meleah Biermaier service ace finished it.
The Hornets never did mount a third set challenge to Thief River Falls leads of 10-3, 15-5 and 20-9.
“There’s no reason we shouldn’t have won in three,” said Thief River Falls coach Kerri Wichael. “In both the first and second set we started out strong and let them back in it. But give Frazee credit, they forced us to play a lot of defense.”
Frazee looked intent on tying the match at 2-2 with a 10-4 head start in the fourth set. But Thief River Falls came up with a rally to catch the Hornets at 13-13 on an Emily Bergland serve that clipped the top of the net and fell in play for an ace.
It was tied again at 16, 19 and 20.
A Jennicca Leier kill broke the 20-20 deadlock. A Frazee service error provided the Prowlers with a 23-21 edge. Biermaier followed with a kill off a blocker and Leier put down the final hit of the night.
“At the end, we were playing together as a team,” explained Wichael. “That’s something we’ve been working on, but really haven’t seen it until then.”
Biermaier (15), Bergland (13) and Leier (10) all had double figure nights in the kill department for the winners. Setter Mattlyn Erickson kept them supplied with hitting opportunities as she collected 47 assists. Back row defensive specialist Abbie Olson came up 25 digs and Madison Brekke anchored the Prowlers’ defense at the net with five kills.
TRF Scoring
n Kills – Meleah Biermaier 15, Emily Bergland 13, Jennicca Leier 10, Madison Brekke 7.
n Assists – Mattlyn Erickson 47.
n Service aces – Meleah Biermaier 3, Emily Bergland 3.
n Blocks – Madison Brekke 5, Meleah Biermaier 3.
n Digs – Abbie Olson 25, Emily Bergland 16.