Wildcats tumble with tough match ups early on

Chisago Lakes’ early season schedule has been brutal with tilts against New Life Academy, Anoka, St. Michael Albertville and Benilde-St. Margaret’s. They’ve only managed to come out of that with a 1-3 record, but they should be poised now to bounce back Against New Life Academy, the only win on the docket for CL, the ‘Cats dominated the first and third sets, winning 25-18 and 25-10, but lost the second and fourth to force a wild fifth set. Neither team was able to pull away from the other in the final set and when the ‘Cats hit 15, NLA was at 14, and in volleyball, the winning team has to be up by at least two points. The two teams traded points on the New Life gym floor until CL punctuated the win with a point to make it 18-16.

Benilde-St. Margaret’s 3, Chisago Lakes 1
The Wildcats followed that exciting win with three straight losses to tough teams. The first in that succession was old North Suburban Conference foe Benilde-St. Margaret’s. The Red Knights and Wildcats split the first two sets, but then BSM ran away with the match, winning the third and fourth set 25-14, 25-18.

Anoka 3, Chisago Lakes 1
In their third game of the year, Chisago gave 2012 state tournament entrant Anoka a run for their money. The Tornadoes are expected to be one of the top teams in Section 7AAA this year, but CL let them know early that they meant business. The Wildcats won the first set in a long 30-28 match, but then dropped the next three, although the second and third sets were close and could’ve gone either way with a few breaks for the ‘Cats.

St. Michael-Albertville 3, Chisago Lakes 0
In their first Mississippi 8 Conference game of the year, the Wildcats were trounced by St. Michael-Albertville. The Knights never allowed the ‘Cats to crack 20 points in a set, sweeping the match 25-14, 25-19, 25-17.

Coon Rapids Tournament
The Wildcats lost their first two matches of the Coon Rapids Cardinal Tournament last weekend. They opened against undefeated Orono and dropped the match 2-1. In the second game of the day, they lost to White Bear Lake 2-0. They earned their first win on the day when they bested host Coon Rapids 2-0. Despite these early season struggles, Chisago Lakes can take solace in the fact that their losses have mostly come to either volleyball powerhouses or schools with very large enrollments that they likely won’t see again.

It’s up to the big batch of seniors on the team to rally the girls and recover from this early slump. Their schedule doesn’t get much easier for now, either. They played Forest Lake earlier this week and host Buffalo on Thursday, Sept. 12 before traveling to Big Lake and Cambridge-Isanti next week for two Mississippi 8 Conference battles.