Lacie Fautsch (Photo by Noah Clooten)
DEVILS LAKE — The Wildcats fought off seven set points, including three match points, in the final two sets of Tuesday’s contest.
Both sets went to extra points. But Benson County (29-4), after leading 1-0 in the match, fell 3-1 to Park River/Fordville-Lankin (22-14) in the Region 2 volleyball semifinals at the Devils Lake Sports Center on Tuesday. After a 25-15 win, Benson County lost the next three sets 25-13, 30-28 and 28-26.
The Wildcats moved to the region third-place match, while PR/F-L advanced to the championship.
“I hadn’t seen them play defense like that against anybody else,” Benson County head coach Sheri Stuberg said of the Aggies. “I thought they did a great job. They were scrappy, and they got stuff up.”
Benson County led 7-2 out of the gates. With Liberty Streyle doing the grunt work of the setting, the Wildcats used all of their hitters. Unofficially on the night, Lacie Fautsch had 13 kills, Addisyn Faul had 11, Aubrey Kenner had nine, Brylee Stuberg had seven and Isabella Engstrom had six.
When things were going well, it was a versatile attack around the court.
“That was the goal tonight, was to spread it out,” Stuberg said. “We wanted to spread it out and not let the other team know where we were going.”
The Aggies clawed back in to take a 15-14 lead. But Benson County finished the first set on an 11-0 run. Streyle had four aces in that stretch and totaled six on the night. The Wildcats took the first set fairly handily, 25-15.
Perhaps most importantly, they limited the Aggies’ monster middle blocker, Lauren Bell, to three kills and a block in the set.
PR/F-L responded by taking complete control over the second set. Benson County came out in a 12-2 hole. The Wildcats started playing a little better towards the end of the set but still couldn’t catch up. Fautsch tallied three kills in the set, while Faul had back-to-back kills to get the Wildcats within nine.
They still lost the second set, 25-13. Bell had six kills and 2.5 blocks.
“We just had to hold on to them longer when we did get the momentum changes,” Stuberg said. “And we just gave it up a little soon.”
With each team having taken a set in emphatic fashion, they played their closest game yet in the third.
After a crosscourt kill by Faul and back-to-back errors by Bell, Benson County led 7-6. PR-F/L went ahead 10-9 on a kill in the corner by Mackenzie Daley. A kill by Stuberg tied it at 12 apiece.
The Aggies took charge with a 5-0 run, ignited by a kill from Bell. The junior middle blocker totaled nine kills in the set.
Down 23-18, Benson County began the first of what would be two near-comebacks. The Wildcats won four straight points, with a kill by Kenner and two by Fautsch.
Bell slammed a hard kill into the open corner to put the Aggies up 24-22, giving them two set points. They gave away one of them on a service error.
On the next point, Faul dug out a hard shot by Bell. An error tied it at 24 apiece. With the set knotted up, Streyle miraculously saved a teammate’s shot that looked like it was going in the net. The point ended in an error into the net by Bell, eliciting cheers from the Wildcats’ sideline as they took a 25-24 lead.
Bell put the Aggies back ahead. But Benson County fended off another set point after a diving save by Kenner on a Bell hit. Fautsch slammed a hard kill to give the Wildcats their second set point.
Benson County served into the net, keeping the set going at 27-27. Bell pushed a volley for a kill, and Faul responded with her own kill.
After a service error by the Wildcats and an ace by Bell, the Aggies finally declared a winner in the set. It was a rare 30-pointer.
“Even the scorekeeper was saying that she was nervous and she was sweating,” Stuberg said. “I think the girls were, too. And we haven’t played a whole lot of games where we’ve had to do that.”
Then a similar sequence happened in the fourth set. Down 21-16, Benson County won four points in a row. Stuberg had a block and a kill, while Faul hit a service winner and Kenner had a kill. The Aggies looked like they were playing more defensively.
PR-F/L once again led 24-22, and Benson County once again won the next three points. Fautsch hit a hard kill into the open back row, and then a soft kill to tie it. A violation put the Wildcats ahead, 25-24.
Bell and Fautsch traded kills to bring it to 26-26. Benson County ultimately made back-to-back errors to put the match to rest — ending in another tight stinger.
“To do it two sets in a row, that is pretty nerve-wracking,” Stuberg said. “And it’s frustrating to come out with a loss on that.”
Bell, after a fairly slow start, exploded in the fourth set for 13 kills. She totaled a hefty 31 on the evening, unofficially.
“Her age and experience,” Stuberg said of what makes Bell such a potent threat. “The age and experience you have will help you get through that and fight through those struggles. And she did a great job.”
The Wildcats still have a chance to sneak into the state tournament mix. They’ll play in the region third place-game at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, with the winner going to a state qualifier match in Jamestown on Saturday.
Their opponent will be none other than New Rockford-Sheyenne. These teams are familiar with each other: They’ve faced off twice this year, with each team winning a five-setter. After competing against each other on Thursday, kids on both sides will be rooting for the same football team in the Fargodome on Friday.
Benson County was the regular-season No. 3 seed in the district, while NR-S was the No. 2 seed. But Benson County beat NR-S in the district semifinals to grab the No. 2 seed from the district in the region tournament.
“They’re a tough team,” Stuberg said of the Rockets. “I think we have a lot of tough teams in our region. But it’s fun. They’re fun games. They’re intense games, and I’m excited for it.”
