The North Star Wolves senior girls volleyball team opened its bid for another WECSSAA “AA” championship successfully last week.
The Wolves hosted the Essex Red Raiders in quarterfinal action last Wednesday afternoon and came away with a 25-9, 25-11 and 25-9 victory. The Wolves are trying to keep the WECSSAA crown in Amherstburg and last week’s victory was the first step.
After taking the first set, the Wolves and Red Raiders went back-and-forth in the second set before North Star was able to pull away. The Wolves took a 15-0 advantage in the third set and went onto the sweep from there.
“It’s the quarterfinals,” said North Star coach Jeff Miller after last Wednesday’s match. “We did what we had to do. Onto the semi-finals next week.”
Miller gave the Red Raiders credit, saying they tried hard and put up a valiant effort, but noted the Wolves are a more experienced unit.
“We could pull away when we needed to,” said Miller, who coaches the team with Mary Ewer.
“They played great,” Ewer said of North Star’s effort in the quarterfinals.
The Wolves’ lineup is constantly changing, he noted, and players are getting used to new positions. He saw practice being a good thing as they headed into the semi-final match, which was held yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon at home against the Riverside Stingers.
“We’re hoping for a good week of practice,” he said. “We need some reps and work on some stuff.”
The roles were reversed the previous day in the WECSSAA “AA” junior preliminary round. The two schools met each other but only this time in Essex, with the Red Raiders sweeping North Star in three straight sets. Essex defeated the Wolves in that match by a final score of 25-18, 25-16 and 25-21.
By Ron Giofu