Photo via lrscroyals.com
The Lake Region State College volleyball team’s season ended with the most wins in the recorded history of the program, which goes back to 2014-15.
The Royals won 29 matches. They eventually fell in the Region XIII championship to North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton on Sunday.
LRSC went 29-11 overall, 7-3 in conference play and 5-1 in region play. It had a record of 7-4 at home, 10-3 in away matches and 12-4 at neutral sites.
The Royals’ 7-3 Mon-Dak record put them in second place in the regular-season conference standings, behind only Science. They were able to bypass last year’s play-in round and go straight to the Region XIII tournament in Wahpeton this past weekend.
On Saturday, the Royals won two matches to stay alive. Their first opponent was fifth-place Dawson Community College, whom they beat 3-1 and 3-0 during the regular season. They took care of business in the Region XIII quarterfinals with another 3-1 win.
Dawson took the first set from LRSC, 25-21. The Royals handled it from there, winning the next three sets 25-18, 25-19 and 25-18. Anne Stroklund, LRSC’s leading hitter this season, had a team-high 14 kills. Middle blocker Lexie Shearer had nine, and outside hitter Katie Leece had eight. Torri Fee, as usual, was the leading digger with 16, but setter Sydney Schwabe also added 15 digs along with her 36 assists.
The Royals played the same day against third-place Miles Community College. LRSC split its two matchups with Miles during the regular season: There was a 3-1 win at home and a 3-0 loss on the road.
In the teams’ third showdown, in the Region XIII semifinals, the Royals squeaked it out 3-2. LRSC won each of the first two sets 25-21. Miles won the next two sets, 25-16 and 25-18. LRSC pulled out a 15-11 win in the fifth set to move on.
Leece led the Royals with 13 kills in the match, while Stroklund had 10. Kaitlyn Erickstad added nine. Fee had 34 digs to lead the back row. Leece and Schwabe also had 10 digs each.
LRSC overcame a 21-kill performance from Miles’ Zeason Schaffer.
So on Sunday, the Royals had to contend with first-place Science, a perennially strong team in most of the major NJCAA sports. LRSC lost both regular-season conference matchups with Science, 3-0 and 3-1, along with another 3-0 loss in a September tournament.
The Royals fell in each of the first two sets on Sunday, 25-16 and 25-19. They stayed alive in the match with a 25-19 win, but dropped the fourth set 25-21 to lose the match 3-1 and end their season.
LRSC had three players with double-digit kills in the contest. Leece had 17, Stroklund had 12 and Shearer had 11. Schwabe had the most assists and digs with 38 and 15, respectively. Fee had 14 digs. Leece and Schwabe also hit a pair of aces.
After the loss, the LRSC volleyball team posted a message on social media:
“The Royals’ volleyball team played their last match today. They battled hard today, but came up short. To say that we are proud of this team would be a huge understatement. This team showed grit, determination, mental toughness, and the ultimate team first mentality all season.
“What this group of amazing young women did for Royals volleyball and the LRSC community is truly phenomenal, and we, as a coaching staff, could not feel more lucky to have had the privilege of working with each and every one of them. To our amazing sophomores: thanks for leading the charge through words and example. This program is grateful for all that you have done for this program. To the returners: thank you for trusting us enough to join our family and for carrying this torch.
“The future of Royals volleyball looks incredibly bright, and we are excited for what the future holds. To the 2025 Royals volleyball team: thank you all for putting your faith in the program and helping us to make history. We [heart] each and every one of you! – Coach Waddell, Coach Marcee, and Coach Kay.”
On the season, Stroklund totaled 362 kills, averaging 2.78 per set. Those marks ranked second and eighth, respectively, in the Mon-Dak. Her kill total ranked 43rd nationally in NJCAA Division II. Stroklund joined the Royals this year from Kenmare, N.D.
Leece, a sophomore from Manitoba, wasn’t all that far behind Stroklund. Leece was one of five players to appear in all 40 matches for the Royals. Her 339 kills were the third-most in the Mon-Dak.
Shearer amassed 290 kills, while Erickstad added 207. Both players missed a little bit of time early in the season with injuries.
Among the Royals’ primary hitters who played most or all of the season, Shearer had the highest hitting percentage at .186. Shearer also had the second-highest kills per set, with her 2.36 narrowly edging out Leece’s 2.34.
It also can’t be ignored that Madison Samuelson was on pace to be among that group, too, if not for an injury that wiped out most of her freshman season. She collected 111 kills in only 11 matches. Her 2.85 kills per set and .207 hitting percentage would have been team-bests. Samuelson, who played for North Prairie, was the Region 4 Senior Athlete of the Year last year.
Schwabe was also an enormous part of LRSC’s offensive unit. She ended up with 1,250 assists, which not only led the Mon-Dak but was fourth-most in NJCAA Division II. She ranked second in the Mon-Dak in assists per set, with 8.62. Science’s Quinn Kost somehow had 10.80 per set. Schwabe still had nearly 200 more total assists than Kost.
It was Schwabe’s first year on the volleyball team after only playing basketball her freshman year.
On the defensive side, Devils Lake alum Fee ended up with 709 digs, over 200 more than anyone else in the Mon-Dak. The mark ranked eighth nationally. Her digs per set was 4.89, second in the conference behind only the 5.00 from Miles’ Cameron Blevins. It also ranked 46th nationally.
Schwabe was second on the team in digs with 476. Leah Jacobson had 303, Leece had 293 and North Star alum Jorie Ahlberg had 247.
Schwabe and Fee will now rejoin the women’s basketball team, which happened to start its season the same weekend of the volleyball tournament. Schwabe was the leading scorer on the basketball team last year, while Fee is entering her freshman season. The basketball squad certainly missed their presence this weekend with a pair of losses after leading in the fourth quarter, going 1-2 on the weekend overall.
With 29 wins, the volleyball team surpassed the 25 from the 2018-19 season, which had been the most in at least the last 12 years. In that season, the Royals lost to Science in the region semifinals.
Head coach Steve Waddell was hired in 2020, making this the best season in his tenure. LRSC went just 2-18 in his first year. The team has now had three winning seasons in the last four years, with an 87-62 overall record in that span.
