Steve Waddell (Photo by Noah Clooten)
DEVILS LAKE — After dropping the third set, Lake Region State College trailed 5-0 in the fourth.
In a match the Royals once led 2-0, they were on the verge of going to a fifth set. So head coach Steve Waddell called a timeout.
“I pointed kids out, and I told them specifically the job that they had to do,” Waddell said. “I got a little fired up. And some teams react to that in different ways.”
Fueled by a monstrous eight-kill set from Anne Stroklund, LRSC clawed back and won the fourth set. It won 3-1 over Miles Community College (7-6, 0-2) a day after beating Dawson Community College by the same score. It was the second conference victory in as many days for the Royals (16-5, 2-0).
“I liked how we responded to that third set,” Waddell said. “Anne Stroklund just played out of her mind tonight.”
It’s mid-September, and the Royals have already matched last year’s conference win total. They’ve already surpassed last year’s overall win total.
“I think we just have really good team chemistry, and we work on that every day in practice,” Stroklund said. “Just trusting one another and doing it for each other. And I really think we did that night.”
In the wake of several injuries, Stroklund has been LRSC’s most powerful force. The six-foot freshman from Kenmare, N.D., had 20 kills unofficially on the night. That gives her 2.83 kills per set, only narrowly behind the injured Madison Samuelson (2.85) for the team lead.
“All that credit goes to my center, Syd[ney Schwabe], and our back row,” Stroklund said. “Because they’re the ones that are doing all the hard work. I just have to put it away.”
Stroklund leads the entire Mon-Dak Athletic Conference in kills, and it’s not even close. She has over 50 more than the next-best player. She’s sixth in the conference in kills per set.
“I knew that she was gonna be a really strong player for us, but honestly, she’s really surprised me as far as how good she actually is,” Waddell said.
Right out of the gates, Miles looked like a higher-quality opponent than Dawson. The Pioneers dug out the types of shots that Dawson wasn’t getting to on Tuesday. The Royals lost the first point of all four sets.
But Miles also made a plethora of early errors. LRSC, after trailing 6-5, won four straight points and never relinquished a first-set lead.
“Miles is a very, very good team; I knew that they were going to be tough to beat,” Waddell said. “And we had a game plan. We didn’t want to send them any free balls.”
Stroklund was on fire, collecting seven kills and an ace in the first set. Katie Leece added four kills in the set and 13 unofficially on the night.
An ace by Schwabe capped a 25-15 win.
The Royals did just enough to win the second set, too. It was tied 7-7, but LRSC won four straight and again held onto the lead. Stroklund and Leece combined for five kills in the 25-19 win.
But like on Tuesday against Dawson, the Royals dropped the third set. However, unlike Tuesday when they blew a big lead, LRSC trailed the entire way through.
Miles won the first three points of the set and eventually won it by nine, 25-16. Stroklund was limited to two kills.
The Royals returned one of their four injured players on Wednesday: middle blocker Lexie Shearer. She was one of their best players last year, and had been one of the best again this year before her injury.
She wasn’t on her A-game in the first two sets. Miles blocked most of her attacks; she had only one kill in the first set and none in the second. Despite the team’s loss in the third set, Shearer started to get going with four kills.
“She was struggling in the first two sets, but then in sets three and four, she started to find a way to score, which is what we need from her,” Waddell said. “We needed her to get kills — whether they’re tips, whether they’re off the block.”
Shearer’s presence helped complement Stroklund’s heroics in the victorious fourth set. She had three kills to finish with eight on the night. Leece had four kills in the final set, including the winning shot.
After the timeout down 5-0, the Royals won the next three to get back in it. They eventually tied it at 10-10, following a kill by Stroklund and an ace by Leah Jacobson.
“Coach reminded us that we’re doing it for each other, not for ourselves,” Stroklund said. “And I think that helped us to dig deep and pull it out.”
Shearer had back-to-back kills that gave LRSC its first lead of the set, 13-11. Miles made it a one-point set as late as 23-22, but Stroklund and Leece, fittingly, finished it off with kills.
“We just had to come together on the court, say a few words, take a deep breath and just go back to playing our volleyball,” Stroklund said.
Torri Fee, the team’s leading digger, also provided the glue to keep points alive. She had a particularly impressive return in the fourth set on a near-kill from the Pioneers.
Now, the Royals look to keep rolling as their injuries begin to heal up. Samuelson will be out for four to six weeks — undoubtedly a big blow. But Kaitlyn Erickstad is expected to return before Saturday’s road match, and Morgen Disrud should only be a couple of days behind.
“It’s nice to get this win when we’re not fully healthy,” Waddell said. “So I’m excited to see what we can do when we get full force.”
LRSC travels to Brainerd, Minn., on Saturday to face Central Lakes College.
