Minnesota Match-ups: Iron Range

<p>  With playoffs approaching quickly, teams are eager to get a few more wins.  Way up north in the Iron Range conference, three teams are battling for the conference title.  Deer River, Greenway and Virginia all have 4 conference wins and one loss each.  Here's a look at the top players from each team and the match-ups that might determine who gets the conference crown.</p> <p><strong>Deer River</strong>:  With an overall record 9-4-0, they are seemingly in first place.  Tuesday they will host Virginia in an important end of the regular season match.  The Deer River Warriors are made up of all seniors and juniors.  Last year they had a strong year finishing second in the conference.  So, experience is on their side.  Senior, setter <strong>Noelle Grosse</strong> has a great skill set.  She usually is one of the top servers on this tough-serving team.  In their win against Little Fork-Big Falls the team had an unheard of 22 ace serves.  Five of those were Grosse and sr., middle blocker, <strong>Hope Schjenken</strong> had 7!  Schjenken is often the team leader in kills too.  Her season high was 26 kills against the Hill City Hornets.  She will play at UMD next year.  They have a handful of strong hitters and other setter <strong>Breeze Bergland</strong> (sr.) usually gets double-digit assists too.  With their strong serving, talented setting duo and big hitters at the net, they will be tough to beat but Virginia has great odds.</p> <p><strong>Virginia:</strong>  They will go to Deer River High School for their Tuesday match and it is an important one.  The Blue Devils have proven they don't fold under pressure.  Just last week they defeated Mesabi East 3-1 after trailing in each set.  <strong>Kaylee Iverson </strong>such a strong all-around player.  Only a junior, but her height and physicality is hard to match.  Their tall line-up helps them stay aggressive at the net.  Six-foot, senior, right-side hitter <strong>Isabella Matilla</strong>, sets up a huge block and takes teams out of their offense by attacking the setter's defense.  Put her next to tenth-grader <strong>Lexiss Trigg </strong>(6', MH) and you have a brick wall at the net.  They attended a tournament in Apple Valley in early September and put up a good fight against Apple Valley HS and defeated Fillmore Central.  It is great to see teams travel that distance to face sometimes bigger, tougher schools.</p> <p><strong>Greenway: </strong> They just had a tough loss against 4th place team Grand Rapids; losing in 4 close sets.  The third and fourth set really could have gone either way with score 29-27 and 27-25- Grand Rapids on top.  They have a non-conference match against Marshall (Duluth) tonight that will be a big win if their stars can shine brighter against the Lake Superior conference school.  We anticipate strong matches from: sette- <strong>Erin Gustason ,</strong> libero<strong>-Kailee Trombly,</strong> and outside hitter-<strong>Alex Sanderson.</strong>  This team has what it takes but will need to eliminate errors to come out on top.</p> <p>  Whoever wins the conference title, it is sure to be a battle in playoffs.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>photo credit: *MARK SAUER- Mesabi Daily News</p>