ASHWAUBENON – This time when the Grantsburg girls volleyball team leaves the Resch Center, the walk will be much sweeter.

The Pirates fell in the WIAA Division 3 state title game last season, and made it a point to come back this season.

Grantsburg’s goal of a state title was realized Saturday afternoon when it earned a sweep of Cuba City 25-14, 25-21, 25-12 to win the first state title in school history.

“We definitely brought our A-Game today which was something we talked about on the bus ride here,” Grantsburg coach Bill Morrin said. “We have to play good defense and transition. If we could do those things we have  chance.

“It was like we couldn’t do anything wrong today.”

In a matchup of the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the final Wisconsin Volleyball Coaches Association Divisions 3, many thought this game would be a battle. But the Pirates (36-1), though found a groove and rolled behind junior Kortney Morrin who had match-highs 20 kills, 18 digs and three assists.

“When your studs can step up, this is where you want them to do it,” Bill Morrin said.

Added Kortney: “I’m pretty much just trying to go around the blocks. We’ve spent a lot of time in the past two weeks on reading because we knew they were going to be big and expected a chance at playing them in the end.”

Morrin and the Pirates found their groove in the service game and the Cubans (35-4) could not find a way to turn the serve it into any sort of offense.

“If there is going to be an issue with us in serve receive it is going to be the jump serve,” Cuba City coach Keri Lawson said. “Sometimes we’re on it, sometimes we’re not. The jump serves coming from them were bullets. We haven’t come up against them all year.”

The Cubans’ strength on their road to the state tournament, which had not seen them lose a game within a match, was their blocking. Morrin and Annie Palmquist, who had 15 kills, found her way around those blocks all match.

“When we got out of system, it took us a while to get on track,” Lawson said. “I was hoping we’d come out an surge a bit each game, but we’d get a few and they’d get a lot. So we were playing behind the ball the whole time.”

Cuba City’s best chance for a rally to win a game was in Game 2, but Grantsburg turned a 19-19 tie into a 25-21 game win and took the wind out of the Cubans’ sails for Game 3.

“It’s so exciting and I’ve been working for this forever,” Kortney Morrin said. “I don’t know how to explain it really. It was so much fun (to get here). Taking them in three – this is what we’ve been working for since we were little.”

Full stats from the WIAA 
  

Preps On The Net “State Tournament Central”