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Wolves adjust volleyball goals

Burt Angeli | Iron Mountain Daily News Carney-Nadeau players celebrates after beating North Dickinson 3-0 (25-23, 25-7, 25-20) for the MHSAA Division 4 District 99 volleyball championship Thursday.

CARNEY — The Carney-Nadeau volleyball program has made another adjustment to its goals for the season.

The Wolves, who began the year with hopes of a strong conference season, swept North Dickinson 3-0 (25-23, 25-7, 25-20) for the MHSAA Division 4 District 99 championship here Thursday.

“Not at all,” said Wolves coach Steve Kedsch when asked if a third straight district title was on the radar when the season started. “We had three seniors that came back that are a key part of the team but we lost a lot of offense.

“Our goal was to just win the division.

“There’s a lot of strong teams in this (Skyline Central) conference. We were hoping to make the district finals.

“As the season went, on our goals changed. It was to win the conference and win the district.”

The Wolves, unbeaten in conference play this season, now have their sights set on the regional at Ishpeming Westwood High School. They will open with Wakefield-Marenisco at 6 p.m. (EST) Tuesday.

“I don’t think we did anything special tonight but we just played good, solid volleyball in all aspects of the game,” Kedsch said.

North Dickinson started strong in the small and noisy Carney gym, building a 10-5 lead before the Wolves rallied for a 15-15 deadlock.

“We started really good and then we hit a few in the net,” said ND Coach Sandy Haustein. “Give them credit, they controlled the ball better than us and teams that control the ball win the game.”

A seven-point run, with sophomore Taylor Kedsch delivering three straight kills, boosted CN’s first-set lead to 20-15. ND answered with a kill from Masyn Alexa and two more points from Kylie Gustafson to close the gap to 20-18.

After the Nordics got back to 23-21, Wolves’ sophomore Liana Blahnik put a block on standout Sami Borvan for the 24th point. A kill from senior Layla Blahnik-Thoune ended the set.

“They had me worried,” Kedsch said. “They came out strong against Stephenson (in the district semifinal) and carried that momentum. I’m glad our girls kept fighting.

“I thought North Dickinson played great defense. They were hustling all over the floor.”

Blahnik served up three aces in the Wolves’ second-set waltz.

“In the second game all we did is bump it over and let them hit it back at us,” Haustein said.

In the third set, ND recovered from a 7-1 deficit to pull within 19-18 after a pair of Borvan aces and a Skye Ledzian kill. The Wolves then reeled off five straight points, with two aces and a kill from Liana Blahnik and a pair of kills from Layla Blahnik-Thoune.

“I don’t know if they got as much offense going as they would have liked to,” Kedsch said. “We were hitting the ball well at them and they were keeping it in play.”

The Wolves did a good job of neutralizing Borvan, the Skyline Central Conference player of the year who topped 1,000 career kills Wednesday.

“If we’re going to give free balls, we’re going to keep it on the opposite side and make it tougher for the setter,” Kedsch said of containing Borvan. “We wanted to serve strong and not let them get good passes.

“The key is to not give them a lot of free balls because once Borvan gets a good set she’ll put them down.”

Kedsch led the Wolves with eight kills on the night, followed by Blahnik, six; Ashlyn Hansen and Blahnik-Thoune with four apiece; and Sandra Boulton with three. Talisha McCullough had a team-high 17 assists. Blahnik-Thoune tallied 17 digs; Kedsch, 11; and Harris, 10.

The Carney gym’s low ceiling seemed to affect the Nordics more than the Wolves.

“That killed us a lot,” Haustein said. “We hit it more than they did. It was ricocheting where we coUldn’t get the set.”

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