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The North Branch volleyball team opened the 2007 campaign at Forest Lake Tuesday, August 28. Although the Rangers took a three-game win from the Vikings, NB head coach Kari Francis saw many good things from her team. Forest Lake won by scores of 25-19, 25-15 and 25-19.

"It may have not been the result that we were looking for in terms of outcome, but we did learn some valuable pieces of information concerning our team," Francis said. "There were many positives throughout the match, and we hope to improve on our weaknesses during the year.

"We had great moments of play, but just couldn't string enough of those plays together to get on a roll. Forest Lake is going to be one of the top teams in the section this year and we need to be ready to play them again down the road. Junior outside hitter Megan Scherer led the way with 9 kills on the night, hitting .380," Francis continued.

NB 3, St. Louis Park 1

The Vikings turned things around and treated their fans to a 27-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-13 North Suburban Conference win at home Thursday, Aug 30.

"We worked hard on Wednesday at practice to improve our serve receive, which showed in Thursday's match. We needed to have more consistent play in order to be more successful during a match. We improved our passing and, as a result, our offense improved," coach Francis commented.

Senior middle hitter Meghan Kampff had 7 kills (hitting .278), junior outside Meghan Scherer had 13 kills (hitting .269) and senior right side Ashley Johnson had 9 kills (.391) to lead the Viking offense.

"It was great to get our first win of the year at home," Francis added.

The Vikings host the North Branch Invitational Tournament Saturday, September 15 and travel to Robbinsdale-Cooper for and NSC match Tuesday, September 18.

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