Photo courtesy of New Rockford Transcript
MADDOCK — New Rockford-Sheyenne trailed 2-1 against the No. 4 team in the state.
The Rockets had been outscored by 20 collective points.
“You could see the girls getting down,” NR-S head coach Sara Myhre said. “And we just kept fighting back.”
Benson County had only lost one match this year — at the hands of defending state champion Langdon Area/Munich. NR-S blew out the Wildcats in the fourth set, then rolled all the way through the tie-breaking fifth set to secure an upset victory at Maddock Public School on Tuesday.
“We just didn’t find our groove and our sync. Everything was just out of whack,” Benson County head coach Sheri Stuberg said. “We just never found our hitting sync.”
The Rockets (21-9, 6-1) clinched the No. 2 seed in District 4 in a five-set thriller over Benson County (24-2, 5-2).
“Oh my gosh, it was so fun,” Myhre said. “It was really exciting.”
Benson County looked like a top-five team in the first set. A 10-0 run fueled the Wildcats, as NR-S limped to the finish line of a 25-12 loss. A flurry of service errors didn’t help the Rockets’ cause.
“We haven’t played them at all,” Myhre said. “The first set, we were kind of settling in: where everybody’s hitting, what we need to do, where we need to cover.”
The Wildcats grabbed an early lead of 6-2 in the second set. But NR-S started to find something. The Rockets took five points in a row, with three consecutive kills by Emmie Belquist.
With NR-S up 13-8, Benson County pounced back with eight in a row of its own. Lacie Fautsch played a dynamic game up front with multiple soft touches and one blisteringly sharp kill that put the Wildcats up 16-13.
But Benson County couldn’t quite finish out the set. Up 21-19, the Wildcats dropped the last six points. Belquist came up with two more kills, and Ava Peterson slammed a pair of aces.
Belquist was second on the Rockets with 15 kills unofficially on the night, behind only the left-handed senior in Peterson.
“When she’s on, watch out,” Myhre said of Belquist. “It’s fun to see. She’s got it in her. And she’s willing to run anything that we ask her.”
The 25-21 win for NR-S tied it up. But things went back in Benson County’s way in a hurry.
The Wildcats took the third set handily, 25-14. They went on an 8-1 run to grab a 2-1 match lead.
The Rockets’ hopes of an upset were on the verge of looking short-lived.
“I reminded them that they can’t beat themselves up about mistakes,” Myhre said. “The body language was kind of showing. They were getting down on themselves. And I just reminded them of how hard they have worked.”
As Peterson and Belquist each tallied five kills for NR-S in the fourth set, Benson County couldn’t keep up. Peterson put multiple long rallies to rest with hard kills down the sidelines. Karsyn Wetzel chipped in with back-to-back aces.
After the Rockets dug out a hard shot by Kenner, Belquist slammed her second consecutive kill. It was part of a 6-0 run for the Rockets, who won 14 out of 16 points. They quickly made the fourth set a laugher, up 15-4.
“They were covering. They were getting stuff up,” Stuberg said. “They were getting some hard hits by our team. … Fun to watch. Horrible to watch as a coach.”
Peterson had back-to-back kills, including one to finish off a nice point where Beth Becker blocked a shot by Fautsch. The Rockets finished off a 25-12 win by blocking another Kenner attack.
The match score was even in sets. But NR-S had all the momentum.
The squad took that into the fifth set, where it won 15-7. The student section, which had been quieted down earlier, was on its feet and bumping. Ironically, the opposing student sections will be cheering for each other this Thursday in the New Rockford-Sheyenne/Maddock football game.
The Rockets had an early 5-0 run to take control of the final set. They led 9-2, with three kills by Peterson.
Kenner had back-to-back kills for Benson County, but it was too late. Belquist capped the match with a kill to send NR-S into a frenzy.
“They never gave up. They just were really resilient out there,” Myhre said. “And they built each other up. They shook off a lot of their mistakes. And I just couldn’t be more proud.”
Peterson led the Rockets with 20 kills unofficially. Kenner and Fautsch each had 12 for Benson County, but no Wildcat had more than that. The 35 kills combined for Peterson and Belquist ultimately outweighed the 24 between Kenner and Fautsch.
“Our offense didn’t show up,” Stuberg said. “That’s where we fell.”
Benson County gets a reset now. The Wildcats haven’t faced many hardships this year, with 24 wins in 25 matches entering the night. They’re a strong, athletic group that shares some athletes from the 2024-25 state champion girls’ basketball team.
“They’re a talented team,” Myhre said. “It was great competition. I kind of felt like we were gonna go into a five-setter. We didn’t give up out there, that’s for sure. So I’m really proud.”
As the No. 2 and 3 seeds in the district, these teams will likely meet again in the district tournament later this month.
The Wildcats will be a little more prepared for that scenario now.
“We didn’t play a perfect game, and we have stuff to work on,” Stuberg said. “Our offense, it was just lacking. And we will work on that. We have a few defensive things to fix, too, but overall, it’s our offense.”
NR-S hosts Medina-Pingree/Buchanan on Oct. 20. It then concludes district play in its season finale against Four Winds/Minnewaukan the next night.
Benson County travels to face Midway/Minto on Oct. 20 before finishing district play in Maddock against Nelson County on the 21st. The Wildcats’ final regular-season match is set for Oct. 23 against Larimore in Leeds.
