MADDOCK — Moments after a rambunctious student section — all decked out in pink — took a celebratory photo with the Benson County volleyball team, Wildcats head coach Sheri Stuberg described the preceding match in one word:
“Exhausting.”
Indeed, it wasn’t a smooth ride for Benson County (21-8, 7-2) in an eventual victory on Thursday over Nelson County (11-10, 4-4). The Wildcats, after winning the first set, dropped the next two. But Benson County, which currently sits as the No. 3 seed out of 10 teams in Region 4, stormed back and outlasted the No. 6-seeded Chargers.
“Mentally. Emotionally. Physically,” Stuberg continued to say. “I think we needed to get some frustration out, too. And I think that game helped us.”
The Wildcats had been on the opposite side of a similarly tight contest on Tuesday, falling 3-2 to No. 2-seeded North Prairie. But they held off a pesky underdog in Nelson County, a team that had a 2-0 comeback against North Star earlier this year. The Wildcats won with final set scores of 25-19, 19-25, 24-26, 25-20 and 15-10.
Set 1: Benson County 25, Nelson County 19 (1-0 Wildcats)
The Chargers hung in there, but the Wildcats did enough to start the evening with a win.
Both teams came out playing fairly sloppily. Back-to-back errors gave Nelson County a 2-0 lead, and errors from both teams led to an early 3-3 tie. But Benson County started to settle in with kills from Isabella Engstrom and Aubrey Kenner.
Then the Wildcats started to take off. They won six in a row, with two of the points coming on Olivia Follman aces.
Nelson County fought back to keep it close, winning four straight of its own to make it 9-7. Benson County got sloppy again and made multiple errors along with a service error, and just looked generally off balance.
The Wildcats responded with a 4-0 run to widen the gap to 13-7. Still, the Chargers continued to chip away. Brandi Lippert’s strong play, along with errors and a tight net game, helped make it as close as 15-13.
Benson County won four straight after that, as Lacie Fautsch had a block and Liberty Streyle smacked a kill at the net.
The teams traded service errors, but Benson County eventually won the set on a strong kill by Streyle.
“She’s young, but she’s learning to lead,” Stuberg said of Streyle. “That’s a huge role for a 14-year-old girl.”
Set 2: Nelson County 25, Benson County 19 (1-1)
The underdog Chargers fought back with vengeance in the second set.
They got out to a 5-1 lead, winning four points in a row with aggressive plays at the net and long rallies where they outpaced the Wildcats.
Benson County made some fatal mistakes, including a shot that it left right up for Jessie Monsebroten, who smacked a kill to make it 9-4.
“It was a defensive game,” Stuberg said. “They were scrappy and all over the place, and they were just not letting anything fall. And it was crazy.”
After Nelson County built an 11-7 lead, Benson County won four straight to tie it back up. Monsebroten hit a diagonal shot that the Nelson County fans insisted was in, and it led to an abruptly tied set and a Chargers timeout.
But a kill by Lippert out of the break and an ace by Mya Luehring put Nelson County back ahead. The Wildcats started looking out of sync and discombobulated on the Chargers’ serves. Kenner had one of her signature kills, but Nelson County ran the score all the way up to 20-13 with the fans getting progressively louder.
Brooke Watkins came up big for Nelson County, recording kills for the Chargers’ 20th, 22nd and 23rd points. They fended off a fight by Benson County, which got another kill from Kenner and won a long rally that ended in an error. But the Wildcats made a service error to put a spike in their own momentum, and Lippert finished the set with a kill to make it a brand new match.
Set 3: Nelson County 26, Benson County 24 (2-1 Chargers)
The Chargers held on to the momentum from the second set, building a 9-3 lead early in the third. Nelson County middle blocker Monsebroten, as she’d been doing all night, found a spot in the shallow part of the court to put the Chargers ahead. It sparked a 7-1 run.
Up 15-6, it had the makings of being all Nelson County. Lippert and Watkins were the leading attackers for the Chargers, and Benson County couldn’t find any kind of rhythm.
But around midway through the third set, the Benson County team from the first set revealed itself again. The Wildcats got back on the right track with a 5-0 run that made it a set at 15-11. Fautsch had a pair of crucial kills, while Engstrom had a kill and the team stayed strong at the net.
With back-to-back kills from Fautsch and Kenner, the home crowd started to get back into it. The Nelson County lead was down to 17-16. The Chargers had some balance issues of their own, and after an ace by Streyle, it was all knotted up at 19-19.
Benson County won the first point out of the break to briefly go ahead, but Nelson County won the next three to take a 22-20 lead. Kenner softly tapped it into an open spot to make it a one-point set, but Lippert did the same thing for Nelson County on the next point.
Kills by Shayna Gossen and Engstrom for the Wildcats tied it at 23-23. Watkins put the Chargers in front, but a service error tied it back up.
Benson County made a costly error, and Nelson County took advantage this time, as Watkins finished the tight set with a kill. The Chargers held on to edge out Benson County by two and take a 2-1 overall lead.
Set 4: Benson County 25, Nelson County 20 (2-2)
The Wildcats had an early miscommunication that put them down 4-2, but they quickly figured it out and won seven in a row. Streyle had back-to-back aces, and Lippert got unlucky on a ball that bounced off the net.
Benson County built a 12-5 lead. But it got disjointed again, as two players went for the same ball, leading to a 4-0 run from Nelson County. The Chargers’ Nevaeh Huso had a kill to finish a long rally with tight shots inches from the net on both sides.
With Monsebroten continuing to be a pest in the middle for Nelson County, the Chargers managed to tie it at 17-17. A kill by Kenner helped Benson County go back up 20-17, but a kill by Lippert helped Nelson County tie it right back up at 20-20.
Still, despite all the drastic swings — and facing five points from the match being over — Benson County held strong. Kenner, after another kill, outdid a strong shot from Lippert with an even harder shot. The Wildcats won the final five points to comfortably take the set 25-20.
“She is a leader in every game,” Stuberg said of Kenner. “She’s the girl you want on your team. She’s the girl you want at your back. She’s just an amazing all-around athlete and teammate. She’s huge.”
Now Benson County had the momentum. And it all came down to a decisive fifth set.
Set 5: Benson County 15, Nelson County 10 (3-2 Wildcats)
After an initial error by Fautsch, the Wildcats won four in a row to go ahead 4-1. Fautsch redeemed herself with a kill, while Kenner continued to play aggressively. Nelson County took a quick timeout before the set could spiral.
Monsebroten won another point for the Chargers, and Lippert came up with a kill on a long, tense point.
Nelson County committed a service error — one of three in the set that ultimately doomed its chances of victory. But both Brandis, Lippert and Schock, found open spots to tie it at 5-5.
Benson County took the lead again, thanks to Kenner. But another marathon point ended in a kill for Lippert, and Watkins smacked a kill of her own to make it 8-8.
Yet the Wildcats refused to go behind. They won three straight to give themselves a little breathing room again. Monsebroten tapped one to keep it close, at 12-10, but the Wildcats finally put the match away with three straight points.
The dogfight came to an abrupt halt.
“I give the credit to the girls,” Shuberg said. “They figured it out. We’ve been working all season together, trying to figure out how to come back from something like that. And here it is, almost the end of the season, and I think they’ve done it.”
Benson County has just two matches left in the regular season, and only one against a conference opponent. It travels to Larimore on Tuesday before completing the season against No. 4-seeded New Rockford-Sheyenne on Nov. 4. Nelson County, meanwhile, will complete its regular season against NR-S on Tuesday.
“I think we have some fine-tuning to do,” Stuberg said. “But this one was a mental game for us that I’m happy to say we won.”
