Benson County takes down North Prairie to advance to Region 4 final

DEVILS LAKE — The Langdon Area/Munich Cardinals officially have their opponent on Thursday: the Benson County Wildcats.

Benson County (24-8, 7-2), seeded No. 3 in the Region 4 tournament, beat No. 2-seeded North Prairie (27-7, 7-2) in straight sets on Tuesday at the Devils Lake Sports Center. The Wildcats edged out the Cougars in 25-18 and 25-19 sets before finishing the job with a commanding 25-10 win.

“We’ve been waiting for our girls to show what they can do,” Benson County head coach Sheri Stuberg said. “And they finally put it together. We’ve been waiting for those puzzle pieces to fit.”

Freshman Lacie Fautsch played a strong game from the middle blocker position, recording nine kills and four blocks unofficially. She complemented the strong attacking games of hitters like Aubrey Kenner and Isabella Engstrom.

“Our blocking today was, I thought, what kept us in the game,” Stuberg said. “That’s what stopped their momentum, and that’s what kept us in any strides they were making — it was the blocking. And so they did phenomenal in that.”

Liberty Streyle, only a freshman, reached 1,000 career assists in the win as well.

“I had to second-guess it,” Stuberg said. “I’m like, ‘When do we do this? Do we do it again later?’ And we’re gonna keep doing it until she graduates. We’ll hit every milestone.”

Set 1: Benson County 25, North Prairie 18 (1-0 Wildcats)

Benson County won the first three points of the evening and built an 11-5 lead. Fautsch played a strong blocking game while Engstrom also displayed some athleticism, smacking a kill and tipping another one over the net. The Wildcats were cruising.

But they got sloppy. A slew of errors helped North Prairie tie it at 11-11. So Benson County held a timeout.

“We had to play smart,” Stuberg said. “We were getting a little frazzled, and we weren’t doing the things that we talked about we were gonna do.”

But, like LA/M in the previous match, the Wildcats never let their opponent lead. They won five straight points out of the timeout, with an ace by Olivia Follman, another block by Fautsch and a tip by Kenner.

North Prairie started to look off balance, and Kenner slammed back-to-back kills to make it 20-14.

The Wildcats fended off a late 3-0 run to take the set, getting help from another Kenner kill and a couple of errors.

Set 2: Benson County 25, North Prairie 19 (2-0 Wildcats)

Benson County took an initial stumble to fall down 2-0 before winning four straight points. Fautsch continued to play aggressively, and Kaitlyn Maddock had an ace, but North Prairie kept responding with equally sharp attacks. The Cougars tied it at 7-7 early on.

The Wildcats took five of the next six points to start to separate themselves again. Engstrom had two kills in that span, while Kenner had a kill and Shayna Gossen had an ace.

Blocks from players like Fautsch and Gossen — the area that Stubreg stressed — helped the Wildcats edge out North Prairie up until they led 17-15. The Cougars won three in a row at that point to momentarily take the lead.

“They’re a tough team, and they’ve got a lot of heart,” Stuberg said. “So we just had to make them scramble, more than they could make us scramble.”

Benson County stormed back by taking seven straight points, fueled by the versatile play of Engstrom, Fautsch and Gossen. Fautsch, fittingly, finished the set with a kill.

The Wildcats could breathe now, leading 2-0.

Set 3: Benson County 25, North Prairie 10 (3-0 Wildcats)

And so on to victory Benson County roared.

Kenner and Kale Williams hit back-to-back kills as part of a 4-0 run to build an early 8-2 lead. Up 12-6, an 8-0 run really shot the Wildcats ahead, with more blocks and kills by Fautsch and Engstrom.

Streyle, fresh off celebrating her 1,000th assist, recorded an ace for one of Benson County’s final points. North Prairie fought off two set points to get to double digits, but an error ended the set with a 25-10 final.

The Wildcats face the Cardinals on Thursday at approximately 7 p.m., following the third-place game between NR-S and North Prairie. LA/M is a daunting opponent for any team, with its 9-0 region record in the regular season and nearly a perfect record overall.

“We are a different team than when we played them the first time,” Stuberg said. “If we show up with the same mentality that we have in these last two games — we’re just gonna keep going like what we’ve been doing.”