The Crookston Pirate Volleyball team placed 8th out of 8 teams in the 5th annual Crookston Invitational at Crookston High School on Saturday. Teams competing alongside Crookston were Bagley, Climax-Fisher, Northome-Kelliher, Sacred Heart, Warroad, Stephen-Argyle and Goodridge-Grygla.
CROOKSTON VS GOODRIDGE/GRGYLA
FIRST SET
Crookston came out a little flat to start the tournament in their first match against Goodridge-Grygla, where the Chargers scored seven of the first nine points in the match to take a 7-2 advantage. Crookston tried to get something going with Madi Abrams and Jayde Uttermark in the middle, but the net play of the Chargers responded to each challenge. The Chargers pulled away in the first set to a double-digit advantage before the Pirates scored 4 in a row to cut the lead to 22-10. The point scoring stopped there, however, as the Chargers scored the last 3 points in a row to take the first set by a score of 25-10.
SECOND SET
In the second set, things started to improve a bit for the Pirates, as they hung with the Chargers for the start of the set. An Ella Anderson ace was the catalyst for hanging around, but the offense of the Chargers stepped up again, allowing them to begin to pull away. Abrams and Uttermark led the way for the Pirates with three kills apiece, but the Pirates couldn’t muster up much more offense, and the Chargers cruised to a 25-15 set win, winning the match 2-0.
| 1 | 2 | |
| Goodridge/Grygla | 25 | 25 |
| Crookston | 10 | 15 |
For Crookston
Kills – Jayde Uttermark, Madi Abrams 3
Blocks – none
Digs – Brynna Kopecky 6, Lana Peterson 3
Assists – Rilynn Aubol 9
Aces – Ella Anderson 1
CROOKSTON VS WARROAD
FIRST SET
Things changed significantly for the Pirates at the start of this match. After both teams were tied at 4 to start, Crookston rattled off six points in a row against the Warriors to take a 10-4 lead, with the help of kills from Madi Abrams and Abi Bruley. However, after this run, the Warriors responded in kind, scoring seven points in a row to take an 11-10 lead. Crookston hung even for a while after that, but once the score got up to 16-14, Warroad went on a 5-0 run, with the help of two successful dumps from Unity Gausen and a kill from Raegan Haley. Crookston tried to hang on, but the Warriors pulled away for a 25-17 victory.
SECOND SET
In the second set, the points were back-and-forth all the way until it was 6-6, before a powerful Madi Abrams kill gave the Pirates a multi-point advantage at 8-6. Warroad answered to lock the set up at 9, but from there, kills from Abi Bruley and Morgan Boll led the Pirates on a 7-3 run to give then a 16-12 lead. From there, though, the roller coaster took off, as Warroad scored 7 consecutive points for the second time in the match to go up 19-16. The Pirates, however, had the last laugh, as they ended the set on a 9-2 run, as Keatyn Kliner got an ace and Boll delivered the finishing kill as the Pirates took the second set 25-21, ending the match in a 1-1 tie.
| 1 | 2 | |
| Warroad | 25 | 21 |
| Crookston | 17 | 25 |
For Crookston
Kills – Jayde Uttermark 5, Brynna Kopecky, Madi Abrams 3
Blocks – none
Digs – Lana Peterson 11, Leia Parkin 6
Assists – Rilynn Aubol 12
Aces – 4 Pirates with 1 (Kliner, Abrams, Bruley, Uttermark
CROOKSTON VS STEPHEN-ARGYLE
FIRST SET
The first set started with the Pirates scoring the first four points of the set, capped off by an Abi Bruley Block, followed by the Storm responding with four in a row of their own. The Pirates answered with a 6-2 run helped by multiple Jayde Uttermark kills, to go up 10-6, before the Storm clawed back into the match, as an Ayla Woinarowicz ace tied the score at 15. From there, Stephen-Argyle took off to another level. They were able to capitalize on Pirate errors, and at 21-19 Storm, they scored 4 of the final 5 points to win the set 25-20, virtually eliminating themselves from being the lowest seed in the pool.
SECOND SET
Stephen-Argyle took the momentum they gathered from the end of the first set and used it throughout the second set. After the Pirates took a 3-1 lead to open the set, the Storm exploded for their best offensive output of the match, going on an 11-3 run with the help of multiple Emily Marquis kills to take a 12-6 lead. The run didn’t end there, as after a timeout, the Storm went on a separate 11-3 run to take a 22-9 lead. Crookston responded wiht a 4-1 spurt, including another Brynna Kopecky ace, but the lead was insurmountable, and the Storm cruised to a 25-13 win, taking the match 2 sets to none.
| 1 | 2 | |
| Stephen-Argyle | 25 | 25 |
| Crookston | 20 | 13 |
For Crookston
Kills – Brynna Kopecky, Abi Bruley, Leia Parkin 2
Blocks – Brynna Kopecky, Jayde Uttermark 2
Digs – Brynna Kopecky, Rilynn Aubol 9
Assists – Rilynn Aubol 4
Aces – Jayde Uttermark 2
CROOKSTON VS BAGLEY
FIRST SET
Crookston placed fourth out of four teams in Pool A, so they played Bagley in Pool B for their last match of the day. Both teams played back-and-forth to start this match, but what began to make the difference was the Crookston net play; they recorded three blocks in their first 10 points, with two of them coming from Abi Bruley and the last one coming from Jayde Uttermark. The Flyers hung around, however, and at 10-10, Crookston started to increase their game. Madi Abrams had a kill and Uttermark recorded consecutive aces to put the Pirates up 16-12. After a Bagley timeout, the Pirates did not let up, as kills from Bruley, Aubol and Abrams catapulted the Pirates to a 23-14 lead. Bagley scored 5 in a row to cut the lead to 23-19, but the Pirates held on to take the first set 25-19.
SECOND SET
Bagley came out firing in the second set, scoring 4 of the first 5 points to begin. The Pirates kept things relatively even for a while as the set progressed, but the Pirates got their closest since the start when a Rilynn Aubol ace cut the lead to 13-10. Bagley responded in kind, however, scoring the next 4 points to take a 17-10 lead. That lead seemed to keep growing ever larger, as the Flyers continued to capitalize on some Pirate errors to take a 21-12 lead. The Pirates were unable to mount a comeback, and the Flyers took the second set 25-14, forcing a decisive 3rd set.
THIRD SET
After the Pirates struck first, Bagley rallied to tie it up at 2. The Bagley offense then stepped up, delivering a kill to take a 5-3 lead, but it didn’t last long, as a Keatyn Kliner ace tied the set at 5. The Pirates then took the lead on a serve out of bounds, but Bagley quickly tied things again. Then, the Flyers delivered back-to-back aces to go up 8-6. After they built the lead to 10-7, Bagley kept the pressure, and even though Rilynn Aubol added a block, it ended up not being enough, as the Flyers held on to win 15-12, giving Crookston an 8th place finish.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Bagley | 19 | 25 | 15 |
| Crookston | 25 | 14 | 12 |
For Crookston
Kills – Abi Bruley 4, Jayde Uttermark 3
Blocks – Abi Bruley, Jayde Uttermark, Rilynn Aubol 1
Digs – Brynna Kopecky, Rilynn Aubol 7
Assists – Rilynn Aubol 7
Aces – Jayde Uttermark, Brynna Kopecky, Rilynn Aubol 3
