LEEDS — A Thursday night in the bustling town of Leeds brought two of the best volleyball teams in Region 4 together.
Benson County (16-4, 5-1) hosted the North Star Bearcats (15-7, 2-3), pulling out a tight-knit 3-1 win that lasted past the bedtimes of most of the kids in the crowd. North Star won 20 and 21 points in the first two sets, respectively, to go down 2-0. But the Bearcats fought hard, pulling away with a 25-14 beatdown to get within a set.
“That was fun, wasn’t it?” North Star head coach Kirstin Ahlberg said.
The Wildcats ultimately scratched out a 25-23 win in the final set. North Star, for all its effort, had to settle for a tough-luck loss. But the Bearcats did not come away from this one hanging their heads.
“I was very, very proud of how they played. They stayed upbeat,” Ahlberg said. “You can tell that they’re mentally stronger… And they’re sticking together as a team. Their hustle was amazing. And they gave everything they had. They gave 110%, and that’s all I ask… They had so much fun, and that is what volleyball is all about.”
Set 1: Benson County 25, North Star 20 (1-0 Wildcats)
The first set was back and forth, but Benson County played just a little bit better.
The Bearcats battled out of a 3-0 hole to go ahead 6-5. Karlee Gefroh had a kill and an ace, and two sharp kills from Rogue Stephens helped North Star storm back.
With the score tied at 6-6, Avery Elsperger had a diving save in a point North Star eventually won, and it led 9-6 after a block by Jorie Ahlberg.
Four straight points won by Benson County, though, put the Wildcats ahead 11-10. Gefroh tried to hit the ball at an angle but missed, and Aubrey Kenner used her power to overwhelm the Bearcats.
Mattea Wanzek tried another deceptive angle shot, but it missed. Olivia Follman slammed an ace for Benson County. The set started to slip away from North Star, down 14-11 and 17-12.
The Bearcats took a timeout.
They won three straight points out of the break, with a strong kill by Stephens and back-to-back reactionary shots by Wanzek.
But Benson County controlled most of the remaining points. North Star fought off two set points before ultimately falling 25-20.
Set 2: Benson County 25, North Star 21 (2-0 Wildcats)
Once again, the Bearcats battled to stay in it. They never trailed by more than four points. But the Wildcats outlasted them.
North Star struggled to handle Benson County’s deep serves, and immediately trailed 2-0. Clawing back to hold the deficit at 6-4, Stephens then tapped it in the perfect spot, and an error tied the set at 6-6.
But then Benson County won four straight.
North Star countered with three of its own, as Stephens struck back-to-back solid serves — the latter of which was an ace. Then, after a Benson County point, the Bearcats took four straight to go ahead 13-11. Gefroh had three kills in that span as North Star started to turn the energy around.
“She’s always ready to go, and she will do anything for this team,” Ahlberg said. “She is a workhorse, and she would bend over backwards if I asked her to.”
With North Star leading 14-12, a 4-0 run by Benson County gave the Wildcats a lead they would never relinquish. Wanzek had a couple of uncharacteristic errors, and a 3-0 run separated it to 19-15.
Stephens had back-to-back kills after a timeout, but Benson County shot back with two of its own. Elsperger smacked an ace, sparking a run from North Star that cut the deficit to 21-20, but she also made a service error that gave the ball right back to Benson County.
A Stephens kill made it a one-point set again at 22-21. Alas, Benson County took the last three points. Follman had an ace, and a kill by Kenner won it.
Set 3: North Star 25, Benson County 14 (2-1 Wildcats)
For the first 12 points, it looked like more of the same.
Benson County led 3-0. North Star tied it at 3-3, but the Wildcats were still edging ahead. With Benson County up 7-5, it looked like it might just be a repeat of the first two sets.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, North Star went on a stunning 11-0 run. Benson County started playing far more defensively, and wasn’t coming up with the dominating hits that led it to victory in the first two sets. Stephens had two aces amidst the stretch, and Ahlberg had a pesky kill up front.
It was all coming up Bearcats. They led 16-7.
“We found a serving spot that we just kept trying to attack,” Ahlberg said. “We just kept going to the same spot until they could fix it… It was great. I love momentum runs like that.”
The run finally ended on a service error by Stephens, and Benson County wound up taking six of seven points to make it a set again at 17-13. So North Star took a timeout to regroup.
The Bearcats had little trouble after that. They worked together; Anna Griedl and Wanzek each had a kill, and North Star forced an error after some smart hits by J. Ahlberg. The Bearcats won eight of the final nine points to not only win the set, but to do so in dominant fashion.
Set 4: Benson County 25, North Star 23 (3-1 Wildcats)
But in the final set, Benson County rounded back into form.
North Star opened the set with some newfound confidence and energy after blowing the Wildcats out in the second set. They began by winning two long rallies, with libero Claire Weber coming up with a nice dig on one of Kenner’s potential kills.
But Kenner did manage a kill on the next point, and Benson County tied it at 2-2. Four straight points gave the Wildcats a 6-3 lead.
A Griedl kill cut it to 6-5, but Benson County took the next three to go up 9-5. North Star responded nicely, taking the next four to even it up again. Errors helped the Bearcats back into it, and Elsperger had another ace while Gefroh slammed a crosscourt kill.
But then came another 4-0 run, this time from Benson County. North Star spent the rest of the set trying but narrowly failing to come back. There were net battles, long rallies and errors on both sides. The Bearcats had it as close as 14-13, but they never got over the hump.
They fought off a set point with a Gefroh kill, but lost 25-23 to bring a deflating end to an incredible evening of volleyball.
The match came ahead of Saturday tournaments for both squads.
“They played a great game,” Ahlberg said. “And Benson County’s a very good squad, too.”