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No looking back

HANCOCK – It would be easy to look at the scores of Hancock’s 25-13, 25-17, 25-18 victory over the Chassell Panthers as a near complete domination, but the truth was actually very different. If not for senior Aili Paavola’s deadly serves for the Bulldogs in the first two sets, things might have turned out very differently.

The veteran led the way for Hancock with five of her game-high seven aces in the opening set, helping the Bulldogs jump out to an 8-0 lead before Chassell had a chance to respond at all.

“There is something about her serve that we can’t quite grasp right away,” said Panthers coach Kaitlyn Hietala. “It floats for a while and then it drops real fast, so it is a very tricky serve to try and figure out where it’s going as it is wobbling through the air.

“It definitely does suck to lose 10 points right in the first match, especially when you look at the overall score of that set. We know exactly where those points went.”

Paavola’s performance softened up the Panthers’ defense, allowing senior Kaisa Holmstrom to rack up 17 kills and senior Mackenzie Wuori to pick up five, including the final kill of the match.

Bulldogs coach Sarah Grieger is proud of the leadership she is getting from her entire senior contingent.

“She’s been dealing with an injured shoulder, so that was amazing for her to just push through that and get those killer serves in there,” said Grieger of Paavola’s performance. “She had six aces in that first set and five of them were in that first run.

“They were big out there and really controlled that game, especially in that first set.”

For Chassell, the focus throughout the match was on something far more important than winning, especially considering that the Panthers are made up of players from Chassell and Jeffers.

“Our team has been having some issues with the blending of the two schools,” said Hietala. “It has been personality struggles.

“Most importantly, what I was looking for from the girls was an attitude change, a mentality change from our game against Ewen on Tuesday From this, I hope that we can keep continuing to build that team bonding, the team camaraderie that, hopefully, we can peak for districts.”

As the Panthers began to focus on the match at hand starting with the second set, their front line players – Sophia Huhta, Sydney Danison, Emma Pietila and Julia Nordstrom – began to frustrate the Bulldogs by getting in front of big swings from Wuori and Holmstrom. Danison and Huhta combined for seven blocks. Pietila led the way with six kills.

Grieger was happy with the way her players responded to Chassell’s combined front, and felt it was the type of tune-up her girls needed knowing that Houghton looms in a week’s time.

“They found their block and they ended up stuffing our hitters a couple of times, and that is very frustrating for the hitters to get stuffed like that,” said Grieger. “Houghton’s got a huge frontline and a great block. We struggled against their block last time we played them left and right. It was good to experience that here against Chassell.”

After jumping out to that 8-0 lead in the first set, Hancock kept the pressure on, pushing their advantage as high as 17-3. Chassell finally settled down at that point and began to slowly claw their way back into the match, getting back to within nine, 19-10, after Hancock committed a hitting error.

Senior Bella Nutini, who drove Hancock’s attack with 18 assists, dropped a kill into the back left corner of the Panthers’ defense to put Hancock up 22-12. Wuori added a kill shortly after and a hitting error from Chassell ended the first set.

Holmstrom opened the second set with two early kills as Hancock jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Chassell’s Maili Rautiola cut into that lead with an ace to make it 4-2. An ace from Danison shortly after tied the set at 5-5. The teams traded points from there until Holmstrom drilled a kill just short of the back line to put Hancock up 12-10.

Holmstrom added another pair of kills to help the Bulldogs take a 17-13 lead before Nutini dropped a kill into a soft spot in the Panthers’ defense to put Hancock up 18-14. Huhta came up with a big block after Nordstrom had one a short time earlier as the Panthers made it difficult for the Bulldogs to score.

Holmstrom finally ended the set with a kill that fell into the back right corner, beyond the reach of the entire Chassell defensive setup.

Danison picked up an early block, giving Chassell some momentum early in the third set. From there, Nordstrom came up with an ace and a kill, but the Panthers were still down 7-3. Hancock had to fight to keep that four-point advantage until Nordstrom notched a kill that seemed to shake the Bulldogs enough that hitting errors allowed Chassell to pull within one, 14-13.

Hancock bounced back with a pair of kills each from Holmstrom and Wuori to close out the match.

Hancock is back in action Tuesday at home when they face L’Anse. The Panthers will welcome Lake Linden-Hubbell on the same day.

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