By John George
It won't be an easy road for New York Mills if they want to play into November, but that doesn't mean they aren't up to the challenge.
Section 8AA boasts the defending Class AA champion, Lake of the Woods (LOTW), who were 16-4 in the regular season and are currently ranked No. 5. 8AA also has the current No. 1 team, and odds-on favorite to win this year's title, Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (25-1).
The Eagles will open Section 8AA playoffs tonight (Oct. 26) as the No. 3 seed in Sub-Section 3. They start the playoffs like they started the season, against Frazee. The No. 3 seeded Hornets (9-14) beat New York Mills 3-1 (20-25, 25-19, 26-24, 25-11) on Aug. 29.
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"We didn't play very well against them (Frazee)," Eagle head coach Amy Koskela said. "We have gotten better at working as a team, communicating, and all around, we have improved. It's hard to analyze a game like that when it's the very beginning of the season."
Mills has been working on a lot of things to prepare for the post season, including overall skills and defense.
"I'm looking to see that overall, they are working more as a team, and that they have improved on all of their skills from the beginning of the season," she said. "We really need to make sure we are getting to our spots on defense, and that our blockers are doing their jobs to alleviate some of the missed attacks."
The Eagles and Hornets will be the second game of a volleyball doubleheader in Wadena tonight, as the No. 1 seed in Sub-Section 3, Wadena-Deer Creek, starts the evening against No. 4 seeded Staples-Motley (1-22-2) at 6 p.m. Frazee and New York Mills will follow 25 minutes after the first match is over.
The Wolverines (19-4-3) are No. 26 in Class AA on minnesota-scores.com QRF rankings. They beat New York Mills, 3-0 in last years playoffs on their way to the Sub-Section championship. They went all the way to the 8AA finals, where they lost to Lake of the Woods, 3-1.
This season, W-DC beat New York Mills, 3-1 (25-19, 24-26, 25-18, 25-16) on Sept. 26.
"The girls played their hearts out against Wadena this year," Koskela said. "We ended up winning one game and two of the other three were close. I think as long as our girls are determined and mentally ready, we could make it interesting."
D-G-F, LOTW and Barnesville are the No. 1 seeds in the other sub-sections. Second round matches will be played Friday, Oct. 27 with the semifinals on Oct. 31 (see bracket).
