Pink Lady Samsons down Finlandia

IRONWOOD - Now that's more like it.

Although the players, coaches and fans knew the Gogebic Community College volleyball team was talented, the results have not been there this year and no one could really explain why.

It has been frustrating for all involved. But on Breast Cancer Awareness Night, the Lady Samsons played inspired volleyball and upended four-year school, Finlandia University, 25-23, 25-14, 16-25 and 25-13 on Wednesday at the Lindquist Center.

"That's the best we've played in a long time-without a doubt," Gogebic coach Aaron Bender said. This is the team we wanted on the floor all year and I believed we could play like that all year.

"A super crowd came out with a lot of pink stuff on and the girls wore pink jersey tops to show support for Breast Cancer Awareness Night.We want to bring out awareness on breast cancer."

Bender has said that all of us directly or indirectly have been or will be affected by breast cancer. A portion of the game's proceeds will go to help in the fight against breast cancer.

One of the sophomore leaders on the team, Brittni Kisul, said the team has been trying almost everything to get out of its funk.

"We've had family-type dinners, team talks after practice-anything to be more as a team," Kisul said. "We have more than enough talent to play with these other teams. We're a good team and tonight we showed it. I heard a quote that I thought was good: "Stop playing for the trophy-start playing for the moment."

Krista Svoboda, another sophomore, said the team got the impression Bender was putting too much pressure and blame on himself as a coach.

"Our coach just wants us to come together," Svoboda said. "We wanted to show him it wasn't his fault. He's a good coach. We just realized we were sick of losing. It was time to go to a higher level and now we want to get one or two wins under us and just go up from there."

In game one, it was Finlandia that jumped to an early lead. Kellie Maddox served four straight points before Korrie Trier slammed a kill down the middle of the court.

Finlandia took leads of 9-4 and 11-5, before GCC steadily climbed back into the game. The Lady Samsons picked up their intensity and hit shot all over the place that made Finlandia run. Svoboda said "adrenaline was really high."

Finlandia couldn't return Zoey McGeshick's serve and Gogebic went ahead 17-16. When a Finlandia player whiffed on a serve, the Lady Samsons went up 18-16.

Finlandia answered back to take a 23-20 lead and Kylea Hoff stepped up and served five straight points, highlighted by Kisul's block and tip.

In game two, Maddox aced GCC right at the start and Trier returned the favor. The Lady Samsons raced out to an 11-7 lead. Finlandia hit shots wide and into the net and then Svoboda a nailed a cross-court kill to put GCC up 17-8.

Kisul tipped the ball down over the net and her ace ended the second set, 25-14.

In game three, the Lady Samsons took an early lead, but Maddox aced Gogebic, and GCC misfired on three shots and hit another one into the net to fall behind 20-13. One poor game led to a 25-16 loss.

The Lady Samsons served well in the fourth set and had the Lions on the run. Kisul's kill and tip gave GCC a 11-4 lead. Hoff's kill increased the lead to 13-4.

Gogebic had a surge of six straight points to take a 21-8 lead. Trier had a hard kill bounce off a defender's hands and Sarah Trudgeon served a point and Finlandia hit two shots long as Gogebic won the set (25-13) and the match.

Bender went home a very happy man.

"This was great to see, but it has to continue," Bender said. "We can't have letdowns and there's a lot of games to play.We still have opportunities and everything can turn around. But we can't slow down at all."

The Lady Samsons raised their record to 7-12. The team travels to Vermilion on Saturday to play Rainy River and Vermilion.