Ewen-Trout Creek's Bree Besonen prepares to serve in a match against Dollar Bay-Tamarack City Thursday in the Dollar Bay gym. (Eddie O’Neill/For the Gazette)

DOLLAR BAY — While Ewen-Trout Creek Panthers volleyball coach Kaitlin Ruotsala would have preferred a better performance in the first set of her team’s matchup against the Dollar Bay-Tamarack City Blue Bolts Thursday, she wasn’t complaining about sets two, three and four. It was then that the Panthers played their best and won their second match of the season, 3-1 (20-25, 25-17, 27-25 and 25-12).

“I liked our fighting spirit,” Ruotsala said. “This is a tough place to play in terms of Dollar Bay’s fans being strong and loud. The girls though stuck together and played their game of volleyball.”

Dollar Bay’s best set was the first. Despite being down 7-4, the Blue Bolts came back to tie it at nine. Senior Kiera Isaacson was on the line for the home team and put the Blue Bolts up 16-10. Teammate Aubrey Karppinen pushed the score to 23-17, and the Blue Bolts took this 25-20.

Momentum, however, seemingly switched to the Panthers in the second set. They jumped out to a 11-8 lead. With Ireland McGeshick on the service line, it became a 16-9 Ewen-Trout Creek lead. McGeshick put down a big kill just minutes later to make the score 23-17, and the Panthers added two more points for a 25-17 win.

McGeshick led the Panthers with eight kills; Bree Besonen followed with six.

Set three was a back-and-forth battle with the scored knotted at five, six, eight and ten just to start. However, with Peyton Hardes on the line, the Panthers pushed out to a 19-14 lead, but the Blue Bolts were not giving up. They tied it 19, and the race to 25 was on. It turned out to be a neck-and-neck race with the two teams tied at 23, 24 and 25 before the Panthers put two points together and a 27-25 win.

The Blue Bolts seemed to be worn out after the third-set “extra-inning” loss. With Bree Besonen on the line, the Panthers opened the fourth set 15-0. The opening shut out was a combination of consistent service from her and strong defense from her teammates.

“We played the floor and talked as a team,” added Ruotsala.

This included strong defense on their side of the net. McKayla Basel had 14 digs, and Peyton Hardes tallied 12. The Panthers went on to win this one 25-12 and improve to 2-0 on the season.

Up next

The Blue Bolts will travel to Superior Central on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. match. The Panthers are at Lake Linden-Hubbell on Monday for a 7 p.m. match against the Lakes.