They were on the heels of their first home loss since 2017.
A difficult second set Tuesday night only added to the frustration.
By the third set in Littlefork, the Ely Timberwolves were ready to erupt.
And that’s exactly what they did, wrapping up the win with a 25-2 dominant effort to complete a high school volleyball sweep over host Littlefork-Big Falls.
Ely climbed over the .500 mark with a 25-7, 25-22, 25-2 Arrowhead Conference victory.
The Wolves spread the wealth offensively and got nine ace serves from Makenzi Huntington in the victory, as they rebounded from a four set loss to Greenway a week earlier.
Ely took control early but struggled in the middle set.
“We missed a lot of serves and it shouldn’t have been that close,” said Ely head coach Megan Wognum. “It was just the difference of us making serves rather than missing them.”
Juniors Charlotte Hegman and Amelia Penke had six kills each for the winners, while senior Sadie Rechichi and junior Lydia Shultz recorded five each.
Ruby Lowe, a junior, added three more.
Huntington (13) and junior Gretta Lowe (12) both distributed the ball for the winners, and Ely also came through at the serving line with 18 aces.
In addition to Huntington’s nine, Hegman had six more and Rechichi finished with three.
Shultz paced the defense with six digs.
It was Ely’s first contest since the Greenway game and followed a week’s layoff.
“They were hungry,” Wognum said of her team. “But after coming off a long weekend, and it’s always hard on the first day of school I felt we just needed to let our guards down and play the way we know how to play.”
The Wolves will be busy Saturday, with four contests as part of the Greenway Tournament.
Ely has pool play contests with Mesabi East and Nashwauk-Keewatin, with a chance to exact some revenge on the host Raiders should a rematch come in the championship round.
“We’re looking forward to that tournament so we can play Greenway again,” said Wognum.
A home contest with Chisholm will follow at 7 p.m. Monday.
