Phelps battles with Three Lakes, splits home triangular, Saturday

The Phelps played host to two matches this past week, ending in a loss to Three Lakes and hosting a triangular Saturday inside Phelps High School. 

In front of a decent crowd, Phelps couldn’t climb out of holes in the three sets to lose the match 3-0, 18-25, 12-25 and 14-25.

The Knights went 1-1 as the host of a tournament Saturday as well. 

Three Lakes sweep

The Knights got into an early hole in set one, but the serving of Haylee Barnekow helped Phelps climb back within six points, 24-18. A service error into the net gave the visiting Bluejays the 1-0 lead. 

“We had some great serving from, Hailey Barnekow, Aerowynn Marchant and Raelee Steeno. The girls continue to show grit, determination and fighting until the last point,” said Phelps coach Sara Barnekow after the loss.

Three Lakes made pretty easy work of sets two and three, with 13 and 11-point victories, respectively, but Phelps always looked at the next point as a new opportunity. 

“We focus on the next point and moving forward and not looking backward. It’s important to stay positive and work together,” said Barnekow. “This is a great group of girls and are proud of who they are on and off the court.” 

A few standout performances included Barnekow, Jodie Grasse, Kiera Rihimaki and Raelee Steeno, Barnekow made plays both on offense and defense, having four kills, three aces and one block. Grasse had two kills, four blocks and one ace. Rihimaki finished with three kills and blocks, while Steeno had one ace. 

Host Triangular

Phelps hosted a non-conference triangular over the weekend as Chequamegon and Bayfield both came to town.

In the first match of the day, Phelps dropped three straight sets to Chequamegon, losing 25-17, 25-16 and 25-22. They followed that with a two-set sweep of Bayfield, winning convincingly 25-13 and 25-4.

Grasse had a good match defensively against Chequamegon, registering eight blocks combined with three kills. Leading the way in the kills department was Barnekow who had eight total. She also had a team-high 11 service aces.

Against Bayfield, Barnekow again led with eight kills while Grasse added another eight blocks.