Jason Juno/Daily Globe (Ironwood) Ewen-Trout Creek's Maddy Cronkright (3) tips it back to Wakefield-Marenisco during Monday night's MHSAA Class D District 127 opener at Wakefield.

WAKEFIELD — Big comebacks are the best — especially in the final set and especially in the opening round game of the MHSAA Class D District 127 volleyball tournament on Monday.

Momentum teetered back and forth in the first three sets as Wakefield-Marenisco won sets one and three 25-13 and 25-18, while Ewen-Trout Creek played a strong second set and pulled out a 27-25 win.

But the Cardinals needed an exciting, giant-sized comeback in the fourth set for a razor-thin win of 26-24 to move on in the district tournament.

W-M had won the third set rather handily, 25-18, and seemed primed to close out the match in the fourth set. But the Panthers wanted to stay and play for awhile. They opened up leads of 16-11, 21-16 and a kill shot by Ava Moilanen put E-TC on the brink of victory with a 24-18 lead.

“At 24-18, I called timeout,” W-M coach Jessica Novascone said. “I wanted to shake them up, wake them up. I knew we still wanted it. We both went up and down when we had momentum and I didn’t want it to go to five sets with Ewen.”

With E-TC needing only a single point to win and W-M’s Abby Ahonen serving, Cardinal Sara Wasielewski slammed a cross-court kill and E-TC misfired on a shot into the net. Ahonen calmly served up an ace and Marissa Massi’s kill shot landed near the sideline and four straight points brought W-M to within 24-22.

The hometown fans and W-M players seemed to sense something big could be happening. 

“Ebanie (Delich) and I were both scared we were going to five sets,” W-M senior Alexa Jilek said. “But once we hit 22, we thought we could pull it off.”

E-TC mis-hit another shot and then air-mailed one long as the set was knotted up at 24-24. Wasielewski hit a hard return shot for a winner and then a shot fell in between three Panthers. 

Ahonen had served seven straight winning points and Wakefield-Marenisco had rallied to win the set and match, 26-24.

“It was wild, my heart was going nuts,” Delich said. “It was stressful to the end, but I’m glad we pulled it out. We’re playing good. I think we can go all the way (in the tournament).”

Novacone was very happy with the win and how the Cardinals had performed when the pressure was on.

“Overall, this was definitely our most consistent game versus E-TC,” Novascone said. “We played fairly well and were very good at digging up balls tonight. Alexia (Jilek) pulled us up with nine kills and nine aces and had a lot of touches at the net (blocks). Ebanie (Delich) had an awesome game with seven kills three aces and 21 digs. Abby had to serve six or seven times in a row and continue to get her serve in. She was confident out there.”  

For E-TC coach Kaitlin Ruotsala, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

“It was a tough way to lose,” Ruotsala said. “Wakefield-Marenisco really came back. The last game was at 24-18, but in volleyball, so many things can happen. We struggled with little errors, little mistakes. But tonight we played one of our better games of the season.

“W-M is a tough team and that’s why their record is so good (15-4). They came through with a lot of strong seniors. And we had a good group of girls that were fun to work with this year.”

In game one, the Cardinals dominated the set with fine serving from Wasielewski and Saundra Libertoski. Jilek made two killer kills down the stretch and Wasielewski aced the Panthers twice as W-M won 25-13.

In game two, E-TC’s Elise Besonen turned fine serving into six points as the Panthers won back the momentum and went up 7-2. 

The Cardinals came back to tie the set at 25-25, but junior Ava Moilanen two late kills gave the Panthers the set at 27-25.

Game three was close midway through the set as ETC’s Maddy Cronkright and Moilanen kept the Panthers in the match, but W-M began to pull away as E-TC’s mistake shots began to pile up.

W-M’s Marissa Massi blocked a shot at the net to give the Cardinals the third set at 25-18.

Moilanen led E-TC with 12 kills and Cronkright added four blocks.

Besides the big nights for Jilek and Delich, Libertoski slammed nine kills and nine aces and Ahonen dished out 20 assists and made six kills.

Wakefield-Marenisco advances to host Watersmeet in a district semifinal Wednesday at 6 p.m. CDT. 

Forest Park and Bessemer will also do battle Wednesday at 6 p.m. CDT in Crystal Falls. The winner of this game will host the tournament final Thursday at 6 p.m. CDT.