Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

If all goes well, the Ranger volleyball team will be facing Hibbing or North Branch on Thursday, Nov. 2 in the 7AAA Section Finals for the right to play in the state tournament. Head coach Sherri Alm and her girls needed to get past Hermantown on Tuesday evening at Cloquet High School and then wait for the winner of the Hibbing/North Branch match.

Forest Lake made it this far by acting like the Southís No. 1 seed with fairly routine victories over Cambridge-Isanti on Wednesday, Oct. 25 and then downing St. Francis on Friday.

ìWeíre ready,î Alm said. ìThey (the girls) are focused; theyíre good anyway, but theyíre ready to play.î

The section tournament started with a home match against Cambridge-Isanti and the Rangers won, 25-13, 25-11, 25-18.

Stepping up in the post season were the usual names as well as some new ones. Lexi Alm was serving brilliantly (27-for-27, 22 points and seven aces) against Cambridge, and she was joined by Abby Sauer and Nicole Tetrault who equaled her perfect marks by both going 11-for-11.

Megan Becker and Chelsie Sobieck were the leaders in kills, combining for 23, while a bunch of team members came up big in the digs department.

Tetrault had 10, Lexi Alm and McKenzie Gemeiner each had nine, while Megan McKenzie and Sobieck chipped in with eight apiece.

St. Francis was the next victim when they came to town on Friday night and left with a 25-12, 25-12, 25-19 loss.

As usual, Tetrault was great in her role, ending up with 18 digs (386 on the year, which is a new team record), and going 16-for-16 while serving.

The team served at 93 percent and that number was helped by Lexi Alm going 18-for-19 and Gemeiner racking up three aces and serving 13-for-14.

Once again, it was the duo of Becker and Sobieck totalling 23 kills, and Jamie Bucholz was doing a little bit of everything. She helped out with four kills and led the team with three blocks.

ìShe just played and moved really well,î coach Alm said. ìIím impressed with her play.î

Alm went on to say that her team is ready to go against Hermantown, which is a squad that she doesnít know too much about, but if they made it this far then it should be a tough match.

ìTheyíre going to be a decent team, no doubt about that,î Alm said.

* On Tuesday, Oct. 31, the Rangers took care of business with a 25-15, 34-32, 25-13 win over Hermantown. As expected, Hibbing defeated North Branch in the other semifinal so the top seeds from the north and the south will settle it all on Thursday night.

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