Devils dominate Speedgirls

BESSEMER - Although Bessemer continued to show improvement, the young and inexperienced Speedgirls were no match for the seasoned and talented Ironwood team. The Red Devils showed they will be the right in the mix for the Indianhead Conference East Division title with a 25-9, 25-19 and 25-9 win in the House of Noise on Thursday.

Ironwood hitter Emily DiGiorgio is enthused about her team and her teammates.

"So far, we're doing really well and we'll only get better," DiGiorgio said. "Tonight, we played together as a team and we never let anyone get down. We're a close team. We've played together for two years, so we can anticipate each other's moves."

Ironwood coach Lisa Graham agreed the Red Devils are playing good volleyball, but must continue to improve to be in contention for the East Division title.

"We had some improvement tonight and we have to continue to improve every game," Graham said. "Everybody wants to win the conference, but there are a lot of strong teams such as Mercer, Wakefield and Hurley, who are all looking tough. No one stands out and we have to keep working together as a team."

Bessemer coach Shelly Mettler is trying to build her team one brick at a time and it's going to take some time.

"We very inexperienced and the leadership is not there right now," Mettler said. "We can't pass right now and we're not sure of our roles and it definitely shows at times. If we make a mistake, we feed off the negative and can't shake it. But this was our second game of improvement and it will come."

In game one, Ironwood started fast. Combining Erickson's serving and DiGiorgio's power, the Red Devils jumped out to a 7-1 lead.

DiGiorgio stepped up to serve and nailed two aces, while Bessemer had some missed shots and balls that dropped in on their side of the court. The Devils went up 15-2.

Mariah Beaudette had two big kills to increase Ironwood's advantage to 21-5. She followed that up with two aces that ended the set 25-9.

Bessemer took an early 5-4 lead in game two, but Sarah Johnson fired an ace and Beaudette followed up with a kill and two blocks to go ahead 11-6. The Speedgirls responded with two aces from Madeline Gabka to whittle the lead to 11-9.

But Ironwood was too strong as the Red Devils had a kill and went ace/ace and closed out the set at 25-19.

Game three started well for Bessemer as Allyson Metas started the set with a service ace. Nicki Lekies went ace/ace to put the Speedgirls up 5-1.

Katie Erickson stepped up to serve with Ironwood down 5-2. She nailed an ace and DiGiorgio made a two-handed spike. Erickson kept serving aces, DiGiorgio kept making blocks and drilling kills and Bessemer even had a mis-hit fly up into the top bleachers.

Erickson may have had a sore right arm by the end of the night as she served 19 straight points and the Red Devils led 21-5.

Ironwood finished the game by winning 25-9.

For Ironwood, Erickson had a big night as she aced the Speedgirls 11 times and dished out 28 assists. DiGiorgio and Beaudette were a force at the net and both slammed eight kills. Sarah Johnson added three kills and a few aces and Kacie Lundin had a good all-around game.

The Speedgirls served pretty well as junior Madeline Gabka has four service aces. Nicki Lekies and sophomore Allyson Metas notched two aces. Jazzmyn McGeshick added two kills.

Ironwood (2-1) travels to Dollar Bay on Monday to play in a triangular meet with the host school and Lake Linden.

Bessemer (0-3) goes to Bayfield for a non-conference game on Monday at 7 p.m.