The Northern Lights 18-1 volleyball team, which features four of the five members of the Star Tribune's 2013 All-Metro team, lost to Slovenia early Monday in the women's championship match at the renowned Pordenone (Italy) Memorial tournament.
Northern Lights, which became just the second U.S. team to win the tournament in 2013, was 3-0 in pool play before falling 27-25, 25-20, 25-21. The Northern Lights team included two-time Metro Player of the Year Alyssa Goehner of Lakeville North and first-team All-Metro selections Mackenzie Horkey of Southwest Christian, Samantha Seliger Swenson of Hopkins and Shelby Seurer of Delano.
Also competing for Northern Lights was Burnsville libero Greta Geist, who missed the team's victory at the Colorado Crossroads tournament in Denver in March while undergoing treatment for Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
Setting the pace ... again
The girls' lacrosse state tournament is still more than a month away, but if the early season results mean anything, don't bet against a Blake/Eden Prairie final for the eighth time in the past nine seasons.
Blake, which has won three championships in a row, easily handled a pair of 2013 state tournament qualifiers in its first two games, defeating Armstrong 16-7 and Lakeville North, its opponent in the 2013 finals, 19-5.
Eden Prairie, which last season failed to make the championship game for the first time since 2003, has started 3-0, including a 21-8 victory over Lakeville North in the season-opener. Sophomore attacker Sara Woodring had 10 goals and five assists in the Eagles' three victories.
Worth noting
• Wayzata senior sprinter Michael Smith came within .05 of four first-place finishes at a meet against Rosemount on Friday. Smith won the 200-meter dash in 22.42, the 400 in 49.70 and anchored the winning 4x200 relay team (1:33.82). Smith finished second in the 100 meters with a time of 10.98.
• Kiersten Wagener of Waconia scored 28 points for the Wildcats in the Faribault Invitational on April 15. Wagener, a senior, won the high jump (5-0) and long jump (15-7) and was second in the triple jump (33-¾).
