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ESCANABA---The Bay College Norse volleyball team closed its regular season Tuesday night with a 3-0 win over the Finlandia University Lions before a packed house at the Bay College Gym on “Volley For a Cure” night.

The Norse raised more than $1,700 for local cancer survivor Kristee (Welch) Arndt, who is battling the disease for a third time. There was a bake sale, a special 50/50 drawing, and other items on sale, all done personally by the Bay players and cocaches.

“It was great,” Norse Coach Dan Porath said. “The amount of money that we raised was just fantastic.”

“I'm so happy that so many people showed up for Kristee, and to support Bay College Norse Volleyball,” Norse middle-hitter Kylee Tadisch said.

Arndt, who's son, Ryan Arndt, niece, Paige Welch, both played basketball for the Norse, and daughter, Riley Arndt played softball at Bay, was thankful, saying after the match that she will beat the disease again “since I've already done it twice, so let's do it again!”

As for the match, Bay got off to a sluggish start, falling behind in the first set, 14-10, as Lake Linden-Hubbell graduate Joslynn Perala started well for FinnU, and she ended up with 16 kills and 19 digs for the Lions.

Bay quickly responded from the slow start, getting 15 of the next 18 points to win the first set, 25-17. The Norse dominated from there, winning the second set, 25-15, and closing out the match with a 25-18 win in the third set.

This was a complete reversal from the previous match between the two teams, which Finlandia won, 3-1, in Hancock, on Sept, 29.

“When we played Finlandia in Finlandia, they had a very loud crowd and it threw us off, and we were very overwhlemed,” Tadisch said. “But tonight, we really brought it back and pulled it together as a team. I'm just very happy to see that. We definitely did a lot more communicating. That hasn't been our strong suit, but we've worked on that a lot. The back row really pulled it together, and offensively, we were doing really well.”

Porath says there were a lot of improvements since the last meeting with FinnU.

“Ball control, on both sides,” he said. “We served better, and got them out of control. Our blocking was phenomenal compared to when we were up there.”

Riley Johnson led the Norse with eight kills, and fellow Superior Central graduate Emma Rutter contributed five kills. Tadisch had seven kills and Leah Allan chipped in five. Allan also had a team-high 17 digs on defense.

Defensive specialist Tori Jandt added ten digs, and Amber Caylor had seven. Caylor also had 26 assists as her setting continued to be top-notch for the big hitters. Tianna Taylor added seven kills.

Bay College finished its first-ever volleyball regular season with an 11-15 record. Finlandia fell 

to 2-19 on the season, with one more match remaining Wedneasday at Northland College,

The Norse open the post-season next Thursday, November 3, possibky against Lake Michigan College out of Benton Harbor in southwest Lower Michigan.

The Red Hawks are 26-10 on the season with one match left to play.

“I feel like we're battle-tested,” Porath said. “We're strong right now and we're confident. I like where we're at.”

The Norse and Red Hawks did not play in the regular season. The Bay vs Lake Michigan playoff match will be played on a neutral site, in Port Huron, on the campus of St. Clair County Community College.

The Norse finished the regular season by winning three of their final four matches, after losing nine of their previous ten matches. Bay College finished with a 5-5 record in its ten home matches in their first season of volleyball.