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Chisago Lakes seemed to be a shoo-in for the Section 4AAA finals when they drew the top seed. They had played — and swept — all of their potential opponents on that side of the bracket in the regular season.

Despite that confidence, however, the ‘Cats couldn’t get it done when they were stunned at home against the fourth-seeded Como Park Tigers on Friday, October 27 in the section semifinals.

The Wildcats won the first set 25-18, and all was right in the world, but something switched in between for Como Park, and the Tigers ran off three straight set wins, 25-21, 25-22 and 25-19 to claim their spot in the section championship game.

Chisago Lakes played reasonably well too, with Abby Zins closing her career with an 18-kill game and Rebecca Norelius, also a senior, chipping in 13 kills. But outside of those two, the ‘Cats didn’t get a ton of secondary scoring going, with sophomore Kayla Larsen and junior Sophia Al-Khatib each getting five kills on a combined 43 attempts. 

The Wildcats also only had four aces, averaging one per set, when they were closer to three aces per set in the regular season. They couldn’t get their blocking hands on the Tiger attacks, either, with only five blocks on the game. Ella Weinzetl closed out her great setting career with a 40 assist night for the ‘Cats as well.

Como Park moved on to the section championship to take on Mahtomedi (who Chisago Lakes’ also swept in the regular season) after the County Press went to print.

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