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FAIRBANKS — The Monroe Catholic Rams went down to the wire at two different venues on Thursday to pull out victories over the Hutchison Hawks.

The Rams volleyball team gave coach Mike Lessley his first win of the season by rallying to win in five games. The Monroe tennis team pulled out a 4-3 victory by taking the last match from the Hawks.

On the volleyball court, Monroe Catholic dropped the first two games before storming back to claim a 23-25, 20-25, 25-14, 25-21, 15-9 victory.

“I think I aged about five years tonight, and I don’t have that many years left,” Lessley quipped after the match.

“We talked and communicated well as a team and that was the difference tonight,” Lessley said. “Our serve receive was much better tonight.”

Breanna Walsh led the Rams with 10 kills and Jocelyn Ribar added eight.

“They both did a great job,” Lessley said.

Lessley also credited defenders Monica Clark, Lexie Tompkins and Gabrielle Gilbertson with outstanding performances.

“They were phenomenal in the back row,” Lessley said.

Lessley said it was a hard-fought battle from start to finish.

“We got to 20 first in the first two games, but Hutch took both of them away from us,” Lessley said. “We got fired up for games 3, 4 and 5 and were able to come back for the win.”

Tennis triumph

Monroe’s Eilish Saunders defeated Kayla Robertson 6-2, 6-3 in the final match of the day to give the Rams a narrow victory over Hutchison.

“I thought both teams played some great tennis tonight,” Hutchison coach Joe Sullivan said. “Monroe was able to put together a lineup that was good enough to beat us tonight.”

Monroe’s other victories were in the No. 1 boys singles match where Eric Ringstad downed Chris Poole, 6-2, 6-5; boys doubles where Joe Byrnes and Dan Bunten knocked off Mike Walker and Nico Wehner 6-2, 6-3; and girls doubles where Kelsea Hewitt and Christin Davis downed Rachel Wright and Rachael McDougall 6-0, 6-1.

Hutchison’s Nick Raugust won the No. 2 boys doubles match against Jim Winfree, 6-1, 6-0. Kelsey Peterson took the No. 1 girls singles match against Meg Jones by a 6-0, 6-0 score. Hutchison tied up the match at 3-3 when Dan Powers and Ali Parra notched a 5-6, 6-4, 7-5 win over Tyler Hill and Cassie Ringstad in the mixed doubles event.

The Hawks take on West Valley at 3:15 today at the Alaska Club South.

Delta football

The North Pole C team collected a 28-18 victory over the Delta Junction varsity in Thursday night’s nonconference football game at Delta Junction High School.

The Patriots led 22-18 in the fourth quarter, where they sealed the win with a long touchdown run, said Delta head coach Gregg Wojcik.

“We just let the game get away from us in the fourth quarter,” Wojcik said. “A couple of big plays have hurt us all year ... that (North Pole’s long run) took the air out of our sails. We fought back but we couldn’t get it going.”

Complete statistics were not available, but North Pole got its other scores with a pass and two runs.

The Huskies, 1-6 overall, got their first touchdown with quarterback Caleb McLaren’s 31-yard pass to fellow freshman Andrew Carey in the second quarter. McLaren completed 10 of 22 passes for 139 yards and threw two interceptions in the contest. Sophomore fullback Jake Gebauer scored on a 5-yard run in the third quarter, dragging four Patriots into the end zone with him. Sophomore running back Justin Hjelm added a 12-yard touchdown run later in the quarter and finished the game with 112 yards on 15 carries.

“After getting beat the way we did by Eielson and Valdez, today we showed the true resiliency of this young team,’’ Wojcik said. Seven of Delta’s 16 players who suited up Thursday were freshmen.

The Huskies were shut out at Eielson 61-0 on Sept. 5 and at Valdez 63-0 last Saturday.

Delta ends the regular season with a Greatland Conference game against the conference-leading Barrow Whalers at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27 in Delta Junction.