Pine City Earns First Sweep of the Season

The Dragons volleyball team hosted Ogilvie on Tuesday night.

The first set started with the Dragons scoring the first two points, but then Ogilvie scored its first point, and it looked to be a back and forth set.

But Pine City quickly took advantage of some Lion mistakes and pulled away to a 7 point lead. This advantage would last until very late in the set, that's when Ogilvie was able to shift momentum in their favor. The Lions were hot on the comeback trail, and pulled within two of the Dragon lead. Just when it seemed like the comeback was going to happen the Dragons shifted things back their way and finished off the set 25-17.

The 2nd set was all Pine City. They scored 8 unanswered points to begin the set, mixing in a few serve aces. The Lions struggled to find any consistency in this set and the Dragons fed off of this and turned it into more points. Pine City was well ahead late in the set, but Ogilvie had one more late surge in them. The Lions were able to go on a 4-0 scoring run to cut the lead in half 24-12, but need 12 more points in a row to erase set point. Unfortunately for Ogilvie they gave up that one point and fell in set 2 25-12.

The third set saw Pine City once again score first and jump out to a 2-0 lead. That was the last time the Dragons would have a lead until late in the set. That's because Ogilvie found a rhythm and were not going to give it up. The Lions continued to build on their lead and late had found themselves up by 6. The Dragons fought hard to battle back and were eventually able to tie the third set at 19 points. As the lead slipped away from the Lions, Pine City used this as momentum and quickly broke the tie to take a 4 point lead. It seemed as if the set was over, but the Lions were not going to fall away. Ogilvie had fought back hard to erase their deficit and tie the game once again. The teams would trade points as the set went into extra points. Neither team could had any room for error but neither side could find a way to finish off the set. But sadly for the Lions a mistake late gave the Dragons the match point and they finished it off winning the set 27-25 and the match 3-0.

For the Dragons this is their first sweep of the season as they grab their third conference win of the season. They will travel to Rush City for another conference meeting on Thursday.

Despite the loss, the Lions have to be encouraged by what they saw, and certainly have the fighting will to make some noise come postseason. They will play another conference opponent Thursday as they travel to Crosby-Ironton.