Pine City hosted East Central on Tuesday night.
Before the game the Dragons honored their 5 seniors: Kloey Lind, Gabby Schumacher, Mady Bombard, Sky Arends and Maggie Smetana.
East Central came out firing on all cylinders in the first set and may have caught the Dragons sleeping. The Eagles maintained pace for a good portion of the set. Near the middle of the set is when the Dragons found their stride and began to pull away, and would grab the first set 25-13. In the first set Kloey Lind hit her 500th career varsity kill! The second stanza again saw the Eagles keep pace and even set the pace at times. When the Eagles took the lead Pine City came back and tied it up and took a lead for themselves. This continued on till just after the mid way point of the set. The Dragons once again pulled away and took the 2nd set 25-14.
As the third set began it seemed as if the Dragons would run away with it, they quickly took a 7-3 lead, before the Eagles called a timeout. After the pause the Eagles went on a 5-1 run to tie the set at 8. The two teams would trade the lead multiple times as tying it just as many. Tied at 21 the Dragons tore off 3 straight points to bring it to match point. But East Central wasn't going to let the game slip away. They pulled together and scored 3 points and tied the set at 24. At this point the Eagles were primed to steal a set from the Dragons and force it to a fourth set. A serve from the Eagles went just hair too far and gave the Dragons a 25-24 lead. The next point was scored by Pine City on a rare mistake from the Eagles ending the set 26-24.
Pine City grabs another conference win as they try to stay within one game of the Rush City lead. Pine City will head to a tournament in Esko on Saturday.
East Central gave every ounce of fight they had in them and look to be a team to pull of an upset or two.
Congratulations to Kloey Lind on 500 career varsity kills!
