DEVILS LAKE — It was volleyball madness at Devils Lake High School on Monday. A quartet of Region 4 playoff games were played consecutively, with the four winners advancing to semifinal games on Tuesday.
Five of the eight teams in the quarterfinals were representatives of the Lake Region. Three of them took home wins: Langdon Area/Munich, New Rockford-Sheyenne and Benson County.
Here’s a rundown of Monday’s action. The number before each team’s name refers to its seeding out of the 10 teams in Region 4.
No. 1 Langdon Area/Munich 3, No. 9 Dunseith 0
25-4, 25-8, 25-9
Cardinals’ regular season record: 32-5, 9-0
LA/M, ranked No. 2 in all of Class B, got its postseason run started with about as dominant a first match as one would expect.
The Cardinals should be a serious contender for the state title. Despite the wealth of quality teams in Region 4, they’re certainly the favorite to win this tournament. Dunseith, meanwhile, had to win a five-set battle against Four Winds/Minnewaukan to get to this round.
Senior Meredith Romfo led the team in kills, unofficially, with 12, including the last two points of the match. Eighth-grader Hilary Haaven was right behind her with 11 kills. Senior Payton Hall had eight aces. It’s overall a very young LA/M team, with Romfo and Hall as the only two seniors.
The Cardinals won the first 14 points of the day before finally making a service error. A few overeager shots helped Dunseith win three consecutive points in a relatively closer second set. In the third set, LA/M led 4-0 before uncharacteristically dropping five straight points due to some sloppiness.
But the Cardinals got it together and still kept Dunseith in single digits. They outscored the Dragons 75-21 and finished the match in less than 45 minutes.
No. 4 New Rockford-Sheyenne 3, No. 5 Harvey/Wells County 1
20-25, 25-16, 25-22, 25-19
Rockets’ regular season record: 11-18, 6-3
The Rockets replicated the 3-1 win they had over the Hornets during the regular season. NR-S, despite having a losing record overall, was the higher seed because it won the head-to-head matchup.
It was a competitive match that immediately brought a higher pace and energy. Long points and diving saves commenced on both sides.
In the first set, the Rockets stormed back from a 9-4 deficit to tie it at 9-9. They trailed 24-15, then had another 5-0 run before dropping the set.
But they took the next three sets to get into the semifinals with a comeback victory. After tying the match at a set apiece, NR-S overcame a 10-3 deficit in the third set to leap ahead. The Rockets won the match with a 25-19 win, overcoming a 6-0 run that got the Hornets within two points.
Lefty Ava Peterson was the star for the Rockets. She slammed more than 20 kills on the evening. Emmie Belquist also reached double digits with 11 kills unofficially. Kaiya O’Connor had seven.
The win advanced NR-S to a match with LA/M on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Belquist, sister of UND wide receiver Bo Belquist, will face off against Romfo, sister of UND quarterback Simon Romfo.
No. 2 North Prairie 3, No. 7 North Star 2
9-25, 25-22, 28-26, 16-25, 15-10
Bearcats’ regular season record: 20-11-1, 3-6
North Star, which had a tough season beleaguered with injuries, saw its season come to an end in a match for the ages.
The Bearcats were competitive against North Prairie during the regular season. They took a set from the Cougars on Sept. 5, and went 1-1 against them at in-season tournaments. They beat St. John in straight sets to earn a spot in the quarterfinals.
But they looked overmatched out of the gates on Monday.
North Prairie consistently found openings and took advantage of nearly every kill opportunity. The Bearcats rapidly fell into a 17-4 hole in the first set. Nobody on the team recorded a kill until Annabelle Staus hit one to make it 18-6. It was a complete mismatch of a set.
And for much of the second set, it was more of the same, with the Bearcats falling down 11-4.
But they started to find their groove, with Staus and Genevieve Ahlberg playing a pesky game. A 5-0 run shot them ahead 23-20, and they squeezed out a tight victory to make it a brand new match.
Fighting from behind was the theme of the match for North Star. It trailed once again in the third set, 14-7, but the 6-foot-4 Anna Bessonova helped trim the deficit to 16-15.
North Prairie led 24-18 and looked like it would wrap this one up fairly easily. The Bearcats were resilient. They fought off six consecutive set points, then went back and forth with the Cougars until pulling out a miraculous 28-26 win.
The energy shift was drastic. The Bearcats, who looked flat in the first set, screamed and cheered in glory of their turnaround.
North Star came back from down 10-6 in the fourth set to take a brief 13-12 lead, but North Prairie ended up taking care of this one. So on to a decisive fifth set it went.
After back-to-back aces by Ahlberg, North Star led the tiebreaker 6-2, and it seemed to have reclaimed some of that previous energy. The Bearcats were eight points away from a semifinal berth.
But the Cougars had one more run in them. They won seven in a row to take a 10-7 lead. They played a pesky net game to get North Star off balance.
The Bearcats couldn’t quite come back, and saw their resilient season end in a flash. North Prairie got the last laugh, but it was as incredible a high school volleyball match as one will see in North Dakota, with enormous momentum shifts for both sides.
Staus, despite a slow start, led North Star with 11 kills, while Bessonova had seven kills along with four blocks.
No. 3 Benson County 3, No. 6 Nelson County 1
25-9, 25-9, 21-25, 25-13
Wildcats’ regular season record: 22-8, 7-2
Chargers’ regular season record: 11-11, 4-5
Speaking of five-set thrillers, these two teams had had one of their own on Oct. 24. It was a victorious match for the Wildcats. And, once again, Benson County had Nelson County’s number on Monday.
The first two sets were luxurious, with the Wildcats holding the Chargers to a single digit both times. Nelson County refused to go away, though, with a third-set win. Benson County chipped Nelson County’s 14-6 lead down to 15-10, but the Chargers managed to hold on. Brandi Lippert, who’d had a relatively quiet first two sets, started to find her groove.
Despite making the Wildcats break a sweat, they ultimately didn’t have enough of an answer to stage a full comeback. Benson County came out to an 11-4 lead in the fourth set. The Chargers trimmed it down to 12-10, but Benson County sailed the rest of the way, winning 13 of the final 16 points.
Aubrey Kenner was the Wildcats’ leading attacker as usual, posting a double-digit kill total. Lacie Fautsch and Isabella Engstrom were both strong offensive presences for Benson County as well.
The win advanced the Wildcats to a 7 p.m. matchup with North Prairie.
