BRAINERD — The Central Lakes College Raiders opened their home schedule on Wednesday, Sept. 4, with two consecutive wins against Mesabi Range and St. Cloud Technical and Community College.
“I thought we played really well as a team today,” CLC head coach Michaela Laudenbach said. “We had good coordination on the court, we brought great energy and we played smart. Overall I’m feeling pretty good about tonight’s game.”
Emily Repinski scored nine points and Chesney Phillip scored eight, and the Raiders dominated Mesabi Range, 3-0, in the first game.
Gretchen Eckhoff and Emma Simon each added 14 set assists.
It was the Raiders’ second win over Mesabi Range on Aug. 24 in the Minnesota University Athletic Conference Crossover Tournament at Anoka-Ramsey.
For Rodenbach, it was his first win in front of his home fans as Raiders coach.
“I’ve heard we haven’t lost a conference game at home in a long time,” she said. “There’s a lot of pressure defending home court, but we’re off to a good start.”
CLC also played St. Cloud in their season opener, losing 0-3 on Aug. 23.
The Raiders defied the odds on Wednesday night with a 3-1 win over the Cyclones.
“Going into the St. Cloud game we knew we had to play really tough defense to protect against their big pin hitters,” Rodenbach said, “and I thought we executed that well tonight. I thought our girls prepared really well tonight, given our experience at Anoka. We learned from that experience and had a better night tonight.”
Philip led the Raiders with 17 kills. Lepinski also contributed 12 kills.
Simon had 26 set assists and Eckhoff had 18.
“I thought both our setters, Grechten and Emma, played big parts tonight,” Rodenbach said, “and Maddie Lochner and Kate Travis also played big parts.”
Against St. Cloud, the first set was back-and-forth before the Raiders jumped out to a 7-2 lead and won, 17-12.
After a St. Cloud timeout, the Cyclones stormed back and cut CLC’s lead to 18-17. The Raiders scored three straight points to take control again with a four-point lead.
Rodenbach took a timeout leading 22-20, but CLC fought back with the final three points, capped off by a kill from Travis, to win the first set 25-20.
St. Cloud led 9-5 in the second set, but the Raiders fought back to tie the score at 10-10.
The score was tied at 16-1, but the Raiders went on a fourth-and-one run to take a three-point lead and force a St. Cloud timeout.
Philip closed out the second set with a kill to win 25-20.
In the third set, the Raiders led 24-22 and had match point, but St. Cloud won the next four points to win 26-24 and send the match into a fourth set.
CLC led 22-13 in the fourth set, but the Cyclones made a late comeback but fell short as the Raiders won the fourth set 25-20 to improve to 5-2 on the season.
CLC travels to Hibbing for their next game on Friday, September 6th at 5pm.
“We’ll have an energetic practice tomorrow and get ready for the weekend,” Rodenbach said.
Gretchen Eckhoff 14 set assists
Emma Simon 14 set assists
St. Cloud Tech 20 20 26 20
Central Lakes 25 25 24 25
Chesney Phillips 17 kills
Gretchen Eckhoff 18 set assists
Emma Simon: 1 kill, 26 set assists
Division: CLC 1-1. Overall: CLC 5-2. Next: Friday, Sept. 6, 5 p.m., CLC at Hibbing.
CONRAD ENGSTROM can be reached at 218-855-5861 or conrad.engstrom@brainerddispatch.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/the_rad34.