It's becoming as common as the leaves falling and frost on the ground in the morning.
The Central Lakes College Raiders are Northern Division champions again.
The Raiders put the final touch on their 11-1 division record with a 3-0 victory over Hibbing Saturday, and will host the Region 13B tournament next weekend with a trip to the national tournament on the line.
"It is really fun to do it two years in a row," said Alyssa Hamilton, who finished with three kills and an ace serve. "We know that our goal the last two years was to host the region championship, and to know that we get to do that again and host two games is great. I really like this team and it has been really fun. I am really satisfied."
The Raiders were led by Sam Schlangen who totaled eight kills and 20 set assists. Schlangen and Ashton Kapphahn each notched three ace serves. Cassie Shaver collected 11 digs and Shelby Uphoff knocked back three blocks.
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CLC built an early lead in the first game and won 25-13. Hibbing challenged them a bit more in the second game as the Cardinals led 8-7. The Raiders came back to take a 13-10 lead, and didn't look back on their way to a 25-15 win.
In Game Three, the Cardinals and Raiders were tied at eight, and again at 12 before CLC widened the gap to 15-12 and finally 25-20 to clinch the match and the division title.
"We always seem to never give up," Hamilton said. "We are a calm team and we always push through no matter how much we might be down."
The last division loss for the Raiders was Sept. 10 against Northland at Thief River Falls. There is a good chance that the Raiders will see the Pioneers again next weekend.
"With the home games that we did have you just have to take that advantage because we knew that we didn't have that many," Hamilton said. "This year, this team really prepared ourselves because we knew we were going to be on the road so much, and we played really well."
Hibbing 13 15 20
Central Lakes 25 25 25
Central Lakes statistics
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Alyssa Hamilton 3 kills, 1 ace serve
Kelly Pearson 1 kill, 1 ace serve, 4 digs
Ashley Abear 1 ace serve, 7 digs
Sam Schlangen 8 kills, 20 set assists, 3 ace serves, 7 digs, 2 blocks
Ashton Kapphahn 9 kills, 11 set assists, 3 ace serves, 8 digs, 1 block
Shelby Uphoff 5 kills, 1 ace serve, 3 blocks
Jenny Skoog 6 kills, 5 digs, 1 block
Journee Howard 1 kill, 1 dig, 1 block
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Ellen Stromgren 2 kills
Cassie Shaver 1 ace serve, 11 digs
Division: CLC 11-1. Overall: CLC 18-9. Next: Central Lakes vs. Hibbing at Region 13B tournament at Central Lakes, Friday, TBD.
