Photo by Noah Clooten
MADDOCK — This year’s volleyball realignment opens up a new path for Benson County.
The Wildcats are rolling. They’ve picked up where they left off, starting the season 10-0. Last year, they went 24-9 and finished as the runner-up in a 10-team Region 4. They lost only to Langdon Area/Munich, the eventual state champion.
At the time, only one team from the region could make it to state. Now, with Benson County in a district, it won’t necessarily have to beat the defending state champion to earn a state berth. Like in basketball, the runner-up and third-place team from each region will play state qualifiers.
“It sure would have helped us last year…if we would have had a play-in game,” Wildcats head coach Sheri Stuberg said. “I think that’s a great thing, though. It gets the best of the best in the state tournament, and that’s what you want.”
Benson County’s 10 wins have been fueled by a tournament championship in Glenburn and a district victory over Four Winds/Minnewaukan. The latest win for the Wildcats came Monday in Maddock against a non-region opponent, Drake-Anamoose (2-3).
They won 3-0. They took each of the first two sets 25-19 before slamming the door with a 25-9 win.
“We’ve been waiting for a game where we could really show that we work as a team, and find some momentum and some flow,” Stuberg said. “And it took us a minute to get it, but once we did, it was great. It was wonderful.”
Benson County rode the 1-2 punch of Aubrey Kenner and Lacie Fautsch.
Kenner, who recently committed to the University of Mary basketball team, is one of four seniors. The outside hitter totaled seven kills and a team-high nine digs on the night.
“She’s the glue,” Stuberg said. “She keeps us together. She keeps things calm. She keeps things strong.”
Fautsch is only a sophomore. Another basketball standout, she possesses exceptional strength that helped her destroy some balls from the middle throughout the night. She had five regular kills and three blocks for kill.
“When you want something big to happen, we have some girls to go to,” Stuberg said.
All was going well for the Wildcats, who led 13-8 in the first set. But they got sloppy. A net violation put the ball in Drake-Anamoose’s hands, and a potential Fautsch kill was thwarted by hitting the ceiling.
After a series of errors, Benson County dropped six straight points and trailed 14-13.
“We were acting scared,” Stuberg said. “We’re not a team to act scared. We have some phenomenal hitters, some phenomenal servers. We’ve got great passers, and we were acting like we were out there, just not doing what we should be.”
The Wildcats got it back together after a timeout, winning six straight. Junior Kaitlyn Maddock had back-to-back aces in that span and finished with three on the night.
Drake-Anamoose never got back within four as Benson County put away the first 25-19 win.
The second set saw a similar progression. Benson County had early control, taking a 12-7 lead. But the Raiders tied it on a 5-0 run. It was still knotted up as late as 16-16, before the Wildcats won four straight and put the set to rest.
It was another 25-19 win. Sophomore Brylee Stuberg — Coach Stuberg’s daughter — emerged and had six kills in the set. She was tied with Kenner for seven on the night. Most of her kills were from the middle, but she also hit one from the corner for a crosscourt kill to win the final point of the second set.
“Everyone likes a 10-foot hit,” Coach Stuberg said. “That comes through nice.”
Senior Kale Williams also came up big in the second set, especially on the serving end. She had two kills and four aces in the set. She totaled five aces on the night.
“She is great,” Stuberg said. “She came through on the serves, and that was one of those momentum changers for us.”
After doing just enough to win the first two sets, the Wildcats handled the third with ease. They got off to a 7-0 start, fueled by some strong serves from sophomore Liberty Streyle.
After Drake-Anamoose chipped the lead down to 10-4, Benson County went on another 7-0 run. The Wildcats won the final six points of the match to hold Drake-Anamoose to a single digit in the third set. Sophomore Addisyn Faul had five kills in the set to finish with seven on the night.
“I like it all,” Stuberg said of this year’s team. “We really have struggled with our defense; everybody likes to hit. That’s something they want to practice. And our defense, they have come through for us this year. It’s phenomenal.”
While it’s hard to criticize much about a 10-0 record, the Wildcats know that most of their toughest matches are still in the future. LA/M, coming off of its state title, is the favorite in the region again. The nine-team district also features solid squads like New Rockford-Sheyenne and North Star.
The Benson County co-op has never made a Class B volleyball state tournament. Leeds and Maddock have each individually made one — Leeds in 2000 and Maddock in 1997.
The Wildcats jump back into district play Tuesday on the road against North Prairie.
“We can’t start slow,” Stuberg said. “That’s something we’re working on. We have a tendency to do that and act scared and slow, and we just have to bring it right away.”
