Photo via NDHSAA
ROLLA — The North Star volleyball team has had sort of a quietly solid season.
Last year, the Bearcats were plagued by injuries and inconsistencies. Players like Claire Jorde and Genevieve Ahlberg, who were in eighth and seventh grade, respectively, were bumped up to varsity midseason. Despite having a ton of talent, it was more of a growth year for North Star.
And then a robust group of seniors graduated.
In that sense, it was hard to know what expect for this season. But after finding their form early on, the Bearcats have put together a respectable campaign — one that continued with a region qualifier victory on Monday against North Prairie.
After only beating North Prairie in five sets during the regular season, No. 4-seeded North Star (22-11) swept the No. 6-seeded Cougars (6-23) on Monday at Rolla Public School. Set scores were 25-14, 25-19 and 25-15.
“We’ve improved so much, it’s insane,” Jorde said.
In a district with teams like Langdon Area/Munich — the defending state champion — along with Benson County and New Rockford-Sheyenne, the Bearcats advanced to the region tournament.
“I’m very, very happy for them,” North Star head coach Kirstin Ahlberg said. “This is a very competitive district, and to get to regions is a huge accomplishment.”
Jorde and Ahlberg, the two young players who started seeing varsity action last year, have been among the team’s best players. Senior Annabelle Staus has also come into her own and provided some leadership.
Jorde led the Bearcats with 11 kills on Monday.
“I’m getting a lot of kills off the block, so me and my setter have been working a lot together, and she’s improved so much with that,” Jorde said.
Staus had a busy night at the middle blocker position. At times, she had chances to spike the ball, while other situations called for deceptive hits or off-balance blocks.
Staus totaled seven kills, six blocks and an ace. She also managed eight digs.
“She had an incredible game tonight,” Ahlberg said. “She did a very good job blocking. I’ve been waiting for that aggressiveness and that vocal leadership of, ‘Let’s go.’ … She came to play today.”
For Jorde, a full year of starting on varsity has done wonders. She consistently found open space on Monday, whether it was a tip or at an angle. She plays an all-around game for the Bearcats, adding 22 digs and four aces to her stat line.
“She’s very athletic. But what I really like about her is she always wants to learn more,” Ahlberg said. “She’s always asking questions, and anything that she can do to get better, she wants to learn what it is. So whenever we bring in new skills, she’s all about it. She wants to learn about it. She wants to practice it. It’s hard to get her out of the gym, quite honestly.”
The young Ahlberg, who’s still in eighth grade, only had one kill Monday night. But she did have 14 digs, along with a series of strong serves late in the second set to help wrap up a 25-19 win.
“She had that in control, where that could be be her part of the game that she could be aggressive at,” Coach Ahlberg said. “And I just told her to keep swinging. I mean, when you’re young, and if the timing’s not quite there yet, then you just have to find a way to get it over the net. And if that’s not working, then we find the hot hand. And we did that with Annabelle and Claire Jorde tonight.”
North Prairie tied each of the final two sets around midway through. But in each case, the Bearcats separated themselves late.
“The focus in the timeouts was we needed to take care of our serve. We need to serve aggressive,” Ahlberg said. “We need to make our smart plays, which they were doing. But anytime we got a good set, we needed to swing away and to try to end it. We needed to be aggressive.”
North Star won the final eight points of the match to seal the deal. Staus had three blocks in that span, including the final two points. Jorde also hit two aces in there.
Karlee Gefroh and Claire Weber each added three kills to the North Star attack Monday night.
“We needed to make sure to stay positive. Less errors,” Jorde said. “As a team, we’re really good together, so we just need to stay connected and know who to set at what times.”
Jorde and Staus were both named to the all-district team.
North Star’s season now extends into the Region 2 tournament, which gets going Monday at the Devils Lake Sports Center. As the No. 4 seed from District 4, the Bearcats will face Park River/Fordville-Lankin, the No. 1 seed from District 3. It’s an opponent they haven’t seen this year.
“There’s a lot of great clubs,” Ahlberg said. “But it’s a lot of just great volleyball that I know we can compete with if we stay loose and do what we do every day in practice. I know we can compete with anyone, so it’s exciting.”
