Langdon Area/Munich volleyball team (Photo by Noah Clooten)
It’s official: Langdon Area/Munich is the No. 1 seed in the Class B volleyball state tournament that commences Thursday.
The Cardinals earned a trip to state with their Region 4 volleyball championship. Though they were the best team in the region throughout the season, and the favorite to win the tournament, they still had to navigate through an immensely competitive field of teams in order to get there.
LA/M has a long history of success in Class B. Its 23 state appearances, out of 37 years, lead all of Class B. The team with the second-most at 19, Thompson, is the No. 5 seed in this year’s tournament.
The Cardinals had gone two straight seasons without making the tournament — New Rockford-Sheyenne represented Region 4 at both the 2022 and ‘23 tournaments. This was LA/M’s longest gap of not making the state tournament since 2012-15. The Cardinals have actually won the whole thing four times: 2003, 2008, 2010 and 2019. Thompson has more total titles, with five, most recently winning one in 2018.
All this to say: LA/M has a history of excellence in the sport of volleyball.
It shouldn’t go without saying, though, that Region 4 brought a talented array of teams to the volleyball court throughout the season. In a 10-team region, the top seven were all right there with each other, for the most part. And so no team could ever just concede or overlook any contest.
The No. 7 seed in the region, North Star, actually had the highest preseason NDAPSSA ranking, at No. 6 in the state. The Bearcats had a tough year riddled with injuries and tight losses. Yet they still took LA/M down to the wire in the first set of their match with the Cardinals, which came in the regular-season finale. The Bearcats also nearly pulled off a thrilling comeback in their Region 4 quarterfinal match against No. 2-seeded North Prairie, which went on to win the third-place game. North Star ultimately fell just short in a five-set roller coaster to bring its season to an end.
Still — any team could compete against anybody. That’s just the way Region 4 volleyball was in 2024.
No. 3-seeded Benson County, another team North Star played fairly evenly against during the regular season, finished as the Region 4 runner-up. The Wildcats hung in there in the championship match against the Cardinals, but fell after an impressive second-set comeback by LA/M.
The Cardinals beat everybody, going 9-0 in region play during the regular season. But the gap in talent for the six teams behind them really wasn’t that large. North Prairie and Benson County both went 7-2 in region play and won over 20 matches each. Harvey/Wells County and NR-S each went 6-3 in region play; the Rockets’ 11-18 overall record was misleading, considering their prowess in region contests.
Even Nelson County, the No. 6 seed, took North Prairie and Benson County to five sets during the regular season. The Chargers went 11-11 overall and 4-5 in region play, including a 2-0 comeback over North Star.
And the Bearcats, down at No. 7 in the region, still had a 21-11-1 record during the regular season. How many regions can say their seventh-place team was 10 games over .500? The Bearcats won their Region 4 play-in game in straight sets before falling in the aforementioned battle with North Prairie. They were right there with the teams above them; it was just such a crowded region.
The nature of the current format is that only one team from each region in Class B can make the state tournament. As a result, it leaves a lot of quality teams behind. LA/M is the rightful representative of Region 4, but it’s worth appreciating the competitive and successful season that a handful of teams in the region had in 2024.
The Cardinals earned a well-deserved No. 1 seed in the entire tournament for rising to the cream of the crop amidst this talented group of teams.
Their first opponent is Dickinson Trinity on Thursday at 5 p.m. in the Fargodome. If LA/M and Thompson both win, the two teams with the most state titles and most state appearances would face off in the semifinals.
Semifinals and consolation matches will follow on Friday. The tournament will wrap up with the seventh-place, fifth-place, third-place and ultimately championship games on Saturday.
