Even though the calendar says regular season, there was a tournament atmosphere last night for an FRCC Girls Volleyball showdown at Lincoln’s JFK Fieldhouse.
Manitowoc is ranked 4th in the Division-1 Coaches poll. Bay Port is ranked #8 and both teams entered the action 6-and-0 in conference.
The Ships emerged with a hard-fought 3-set sweep of the visiting Pirates: 25-21, 25-23 and 25-22 on Sink Cancer and Breast Cancer Awareness Night.
When asked what she thought was the difference-maker, Coach Mary Beth Dixon said, “We have some big hitters who were able to capitalize on their opportunities. As I was looking at stats, Maddie York had 13 kills, Nina (Swoboda) had 10, Abby Weidmayer had 9. That’s a lot of kills in three sets. I think Laurin Hamann digging, had 16 digs, so that was big.”
Swoboda, an Outside Hitter and senior spoke on the fact the Ships had just seen Bay Port at the Neenah Invite and defeated them 2-sets to none.
“Feels good. It’s obviously a hard game. They know what your strengths are. They know what your weaknesses are,” she said. “It’s nice to know that we adjusted to the things that they scored on and that we could come together as a team and beat a really nice team.”
Coach Dixon also cited the excellent game of Grace Fruzen, who finished with a double-double: 33 assists and 11-digs, including a crowd-pleasing foot dig in the 2nd set.
With only 2 matches remaining, Lincoln is closing in on its 4th straight conference championship.
