I thought we put up a nice, good, solid block and we forced them to tip and do things they didn’t want to do offensively, including making mistakes and hitting out, so, yea, our block was solid today.”

Park Head Coach Amy Johnson.

The jitters got to us in the beginning. It took us a while to really calm down and kind of get into a groove.”

Park Head Coach Amy Johnson

The Wolfpack travel to play at Mahtomedi on Tuesday, Sept. 12.

Park shook off some first-game jitters post a solid three-game season-opening victory over visiting Apple Valley before a raucous home court Tuesday.

The Wolfpack won 25-23, 25-17 and 25-19 behind strong front line play led by junior hitters Carly Slusser and Sonja Lind.

Apple Valley, just 4-23 last season, put up a much stiffer fight than expected, and were urged on by a large and vocal fan section.

Park, of which big things are expected this season, looked tentative at times and suffered through some communication issues at various times. In the end, however, Park’s superior talent won out.

“I thought we blocked very well,” said Park head coach Amy Johnson. “I thought we put up a nice, good, solid block and we forced them to tip and do things they didn’t want to do offensively, including making mistakes and hitting out, so, yea, our block was solid today."

“Jitters,” Johnson answered when asked what the Wolfpack didn’t do well in the opener. “The jitters got to us in the beginning. It took us a while to really calm down and kind of get into a groove. And then when we got into a groove we couldn’t quite stay there. So, being first time out, we have four girls who have never started varsity, never played varsity before. So now they have that out of their system and we can really focus on the next steps.”

“I think what we did well was we came out of those ruts pretty well, especially in the first set,” said Lind. “We were down by a bit and then we came back up. But it was the first game and we were all really nervous.”

Asked what the Wolfpack needs to improve upon, Lind said their passing. “I feel like we could use our middles a bit more because there were a lot of out-of-system balls that we last optioned.”  

Slusser agreed that the team did well coming out of those rough patches. “It took us a little bit at first like she said. I was shaking in the first set; I was just kind of nervous. But I think we did well with that and cheering each other on, I think we did really well on. I think our passing and hitting and setting – all of it – just came together at the end.”

The Wolfpack need to hone their communication skills, Johnson added. We had a lot of miscommunication plays and that costs us points that shouldn’t have cost us points.”

On Thursday evening, Park traveled to take on New Life Academy in Woodbury and won in four games, 25-23, 25-21, 11-25 and 25-18.

Park (2-0) hosts Rosemount (2-0) in its next non-conference outing on Thursday, Sept. 7, starting at 7 p.m. The Wolfpack then travel to play at Mahtomedi on Tuesday, Sept. 12.