This story was written by Bay College SID Mike Pankow
WHITE BEAR LAKE, MN – The Bay College Norse Volleyball Team (4-3) lost just one set in three matches this weekend, coming out of a Minnesota trip with three wins and riding the high of a four-match win streak. On Friday they swept Anoka-Ramsey Community College (1-5) in three straight sets, before doing the same to their hosts for the evening Century College (0-5). On Saturday they travelled to Inver Grove Heights and defeated Dakota County Technical College (2-3) three sets to one.
The Norse were coming off of a trip to the Opening Weekend Tournament in Rockford, IL. They went into that trip extremely shorthanded, missing key players and suffering an injury on the first day that hampered their efforts. They dropped their first three matches before salvaging a win over Glen Oaks Community College (2-4) in five sets.
Despite not being back to 100% health, the Norse were able to start off the weekend on a good note, defeating the Golden Rams of Anoka-Ramsey 25-19, 25-22, and 25-21. Bay found their stride in the second set offensively, putting together a team .294 attack percentage. They tallied 14 kills in 34 attempts and had just four errors. They faltered in the third, ending with a negative attack percentage for that set, but fended off Anoka-Ramsey on a neutral court.
Haylee Gatien (FR, Powers, MI) led the attack with 11 kills in 16 attempts and just three errors, giving her a .500 attack percentage. Mia Hauser (SO, Wallace, MI) picked up 8 kills and four aces from the serving line. Hope Varoni (FR, Bark River, MI) piled up 29 assists.
In the second match of the day, the Norse faced a Century team that was not able to find it offensively. The hosts piled up 25 attack errors and had a negative attack percentage in every set. Meanwhile the Norse continued to improve, peaking in the second set once again with a .333 attack percentage.
Bay did have to overcome some mistakes as they picked up an alarming 14 serving errors and six ball handling errors in the match. In the end the Norse were able to overpower Century and win by scores of 25-17, 15-17, and 25-22.
Addie Morton (SO, Ishpeming, MI) led the offense in this one, picking up 9 kills and just two errors in 17 attempts. Hauser added eight kills and eight digs, while Varoni amassed 28 assists. Audrey Franz (FR, Florence, WI) made her mark defensively with 15 digs, while Hilarie Porcaro (SO, Sault Ste. Marie, MI) contributed 11 digs.
The Norse offense was very efficient early on against the Blue Knights of Dakota County. They had just three attack errors in the first set and only two in the second. They did falter in the third, totaling nine attack errors in that set, before bouncing back with just four errors in the fourth and final set.
Bay did end up with double-digit serving errors, collecting 11, but did combat that with eight aces from the service line as well. They did commit eight ball handling errors as well.
The Norse defensive numbers were fantastic as they had five different players reach double-digits in digs and tallied 75 of them as a team. Bay would take three of the four sets by the scores of 25-14, 25-16, 23-25, and 25-13.
Hauser racked up the most kills with 14 and had a .333 attack percentage. Gatien was incredibly efficient, ending her day with a .524 attack percentage and 12 kills. Ava Maki (FR, Marquette, MI) piled up 11 kills. Varoni rounded out the offensive effort with 33 assists and three service aces.
Defensively the Norse put up an impressive amount of digs. The five that tallied ten or more were: Franz (19), Porcaro (13), Hauser (13), Maki (11), and Varoni (10).
The Norse will get some time off before they get one more tune-up date before jumping into conference play. They will travel to Ironwood, MI on September 13 where they will square off with Minnesota North College-Rainy River at 1 pm. They then face the host Gogebic Community College in a match scheduled for a 3 pm start.
