Hilary Haaven serves in the Region 4 volleyball tournament held in Devils Lake in November 2024. (Photos by Noah Clooten)
LANGDON — The leading attacker on last year’s state champion volleyball team wasn’t even in high school yet.
Hilary Haaven, an eighth-grader at Munich Public School, led the Langdon Area/Munich volleyball team to its fifth state title last fall. She’s been on varsity since seventh grade.
Now, she’s a freshman captain on the defending-champion Cardinals.
“We don’t have ninth-graders as captains too often,” said Rich Olson, who’s in his 30th year as LA/M head coach. “But she earned that, and she’s very well-respected.”
Haaven said volleyball wasn’t necessarily a focus when she was younger. But, coming up through a program with a long history of success, she found a knack for it. And she’s taken off in a hurry.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve definitely more leaned towards that and worked really hard to get where I am,” Haaven said.
Her talent led her to make varsity as a seventh-grader. She played three rotations that year.
She was not only a starter as an eighth-grader, but one of the best players on the team and in the state. Her 553 kills led the team, as did her 506 digs. She added 70 aces.
“She’s got a great work ethic when it comes to volleyball,” Olson said. “She cares about volleyball, wants to be as good as she possibly can be. She’s an explosive athlete and just fun to coach, because if you show her stuff, she goes and works on it. She gets better.”
While Haaven was strong all season, complementing older players like Meredith Romfo and Aubrey Badding, she turned it on in the playoffs. She tallied 20 kills in the championship victory against South Prairie-Max.
“We had great leaders last year,” Haaven said. “The seniors were great, and everyone around us was just trying to make everyone better. So yeah, we had a great environment.”
With all of that experience under her belt, Haaven has come out swinging harder, faster and more consistently. In the Cardinals’ 11-3 start, Haaven totaled 179 kills — over 100 more than any other player on the team. Her kills-per-set has risen above five.
“I just feel more comfortable,” Haaven said. “Everything’s kind of slowed down for me.”
She’s also making fewer errors. Last year, she made shots successfully around 89-90% of the time. This year, that mark has risen above 94%.
She leads the teams in digs, too, with 173 over the first 14 matches. Her digs-per-set has risen from a little over four last year, to above five this year.
“I just read better now,” Haaven said. “And defense is something I’m kind of focusing on this year, especially.”
Haaven plays an overall dynamic game for the Cardinals. She can put balls away from the outside, catch opponents off balance with deceptive angles, or dig balls out in the back.
It’s rare to have a player excelling so highly on both sides of the ball.
“I just see her taking it to another level this year, even though she had a great year last year,” Olson said. “It’s fun to have her on your team because she’s capable of making plays in all phases of the game.”
Haaven’s presence has been particularly key in the wake of injuries. Most notably, LA/M lost Badding for the rest of the season. She was second on the team in kills both in last year’s championship season, and this season before she got hurt. Avery Lorenz has also been on the sideline this fall.
Players like Taya Feist, Kemi Morstad and Emma Hall have had to step up around Haaven.
“We handled it pretty well,” Haaven said of Badding’s injury. “Everyone was pretty down the first couple days, but I think everyone who stepped up has really accepted their role and is really just ready to get where we can get.”
With the Cardinals making the most of their healthy players, they’ll be leaning on Haaven more than ever. They have a young team; Raeleigh Ratzlaff is their only senior, and the injured Badding is one of only two juniors.
With so many up-and-coming players in eighth, ninth and 10th grade, Haaven said they’re all very supportive of each other.
As for the future, Haaven said she would like to play college volleyball some day. But she still has nearly four years to figure that out.
The focus right now is on defending a state title.
“She’s got some great players around her that are similar age, and we’ve got some girls that are out now, too, that’ll be coming back,” Olson said. “And everybody’s excited for the future, but we’re positive about the present and focused on how good we can be this year.”
