Beavers rout St. Scholastica of Duluth

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Sept. 3, 1998

By Devlyn Brooks

The Beavers volleyball team netted its first winning record of the season Wednesday night with a three-set rout of St. Scholastica of Duluth 15-0, 15-8 and 15-9.

The Beavers improved to 3-2 on the season, gaining their first two wins last weekend at the competitive Northern Michigan Tournament.

St. Scholastica's Saints, an NAIA school which in all fairness doesn't regularly compete against schools Bemidji's size, dropped to 0-1 in their first outing.

BSU wasted no time in the first game, posting a 15-0 shutout in a rapid pace. The Beavers had several runs of two or three points each, and basically out hit and out served the Saints who were reeling.

With the first game in the bag, fifth-year head coach Donna Palivec changed the Beavers starting casts in the second and third games.

The change, which kept the match from becoming embarrassing, also allowed Palivec the opportunity to see some new match-ups -- giving valuable playing time to some of her inexperienced crew.

In the second game, the Beavers weren't as sharp as they had more hitting errors and errors due to miscommunication.

However, BSU turned the match around at 6-3 with sophomore Amanda Daninger serving. The Beavers rattled off four consecutive points on three Scholastica hitting errors and an Angie Nelson kill. That made the score 10-3, and left BSU out of reach.

Later in the game, BSU added runs of three points and two points to finish out the match 15-9.

The third game featured much of the same as the Beavers' rookies finished the game out 15-9.

Sophomore Beth Virnig led BSU in kills with nine, while adding eight digs. Team leaders Peggy Hammel and Jenny Fischer each added six kills.

Palivec said BSU never lost control of the match, and so she wasn't concerned about pulling her veterans in the second and third games.

"We needed to get past our young kids feeling like this is a big deal," she said in a post-match interview. "My intention was getting everybody in, but without slowing down our flow.

How can you not be happy ... gosh, 15-0? They didn't let them have a point (in the first game)."

The Beavers next action will be at home Friday as they host their own North Country Tournament. BSU will play St. Cloud State Friday at 7 p.m. in the marquee match-up, and follow with contests versus Mayville (N.D.) State and Valley City (N.D.) State Saturday.