Alex Eisen/MDN ORCS senior Karolynn Winger attacks the ball in a match played earlier this season at Our Redeemer's Christian School.

BERTHOLD — The regular season is over and now the intensity increases.

Postseason volleyball gets underway Thursday with district tournaments across the state. In Berthold, the District 12 tournament puts forth eight teams vying for four spots at the Region 6 tournament.

Top-seeded Our Redeemer’s Christian School remains the team to beat having won the last three District 12 tournaments, doing so without dropping a single set.

The Knights (29-7 overall) are in pursuit of the school’s first state title. They lost in a thrilling five-set state championship match last year to LaMoure and, prior to that, fell in the state semifinals in back-to-back years.

While graduated standout Morgan Olson is certainly missed, ORCS still has plenty of faces around from its three straight trips to the state tournament.

Senior setter Karlee Zablotney surpassed 3,000 career assists and senior Ryleigh Popinga picked up her 1,500-career dig on senior night a week ago. The Knights also lean on senior outside hitter Karolynn Winger with a team-high 324 kills and 51 aces, junior libero Tessa Olson (425 digs), eighth grader Eden Olson (443 assists) and junior Makiah Frederick.

“Over the course of the season, our team has improved dramatically,” ORCS coach Kara Nunziato said. “I attribute much of our success not only to the hard work of our players, but also to the incredible leadership demonstrated by our returning senior veterans Karlee, Ryleigh and Karolynn as well as returning defensive player Tessa Olson. Our seniors have modeled what unity and hard work looks like. They show up every day to help lead this team to its greatest potential. Everyone has done their part this season. As we look forward to the District and Regional tournament, our goal is to be confident in the skills we have worked so hard to improve.”

The Knights will face one-win South Prairie in the first round. Last season, ORCS gave up just 15 points to the Royals in its opening round District 12 tournament game. South Prairie beat Drake/Anamoose in four sets for its lone win.

The second game on Thursday will feature the No. 4/5 matchup between Bishop Ryan (14-19) and Glenburn (15-16).

Ryan has had a tough go of things following the loss of imposing middle blocker Annika Stewart (moved away) and setter Sealy Rovig (injury). Although, they still do have the powerful arms of McKinlee Harmon and Eden Kramer, plus the defensive help of libero Courtney Zaback and Grace Candrian.

The Lions needed five sets to knock off Glenburn at home on Oct. 3.

Glenburn has a rather experienced team with five seniors (Savannah Peters, Harlee Gunning, Kaylee Cunningham, Isabella Spokely and Raylea Folstad) and three juniors (Sierra Hanson, Kyanne Derr and Baylee Bachmeier).

Many of which helped the Panthers produce the only first-round upset last season in the District 12 tournament, as No. 6 Glenburn beat No. 3 Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood. However, the Panthers did miss out on the regional tournament last season after a five-set loss to Lewis & Clark-Berthold.

No. 2-seeded Des-Lacs Burlington (26-8) fell victim to ORCS in the district and regional semifinals last year. This year, the Lakers find themselves on the other side of the district bracket.

“The girls are excited to start postseason play, we’ve been building to this point of the season and feel like we are playing sound volleyball at the right time,” DLB coach Tarra Hysjulien said. “Our district tourney should be a good one as all of the teams could win on any given night. This is one of the scrappiest teams we’ve had at DLB, it’s also one of the tallest, well-rounded hitting offenses we’ve had. We’re ready to see what we can do in postseason.”

Senior Caitlyn Vogel comes in leading DLB in kills (331), assists (256) and blocks (40) this season. Freshman Ava Wille leads the team in aces (51) and sophomore Kali Lucier has collected a team-high 338 digs. Kyley Lauf and Kayli Olson both have triple-digits in kills as well.

The Lakers get No. 7-seeded Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood (7-20) in the first round — a regional qualifier rematch from a year ago. The Mavericks are led by hitters Calli Brackenbury, Janie Savelkoul and Skylar McLain.

The hosts of the tournament, No. 3-seeded Lewis & Clark-Berthold, closes out Thursday’s slate of games against No. 6 Surrey. These two teams went the distance on Sept. 21 with L&C-B winning 3-2.

The Bombers (22-12) have a reliable senior group with setter Laura Vangsness, libero Cody Ryan, outside hitter Lyvia Roark and hitter Grace Simons.

Surrey (11-13) has one of the tallest players in the tournament with 6-foot-3 junior Hunter Fuchs. The Mustangs also have senior libero Jayden Okeson, senior hitter Abigail Storkson and senior setter Shaylee Miller. The last time Surrey won a set at the district tournament was in 2010.

The first match on Thursday between Our Redeemer’s and South Prairie starts at 4 p.m. with the rest of the matches to follow in succession 25 minutes after each match ends. Semifinals and the loser-out matches are going to follow the same time format on Friday in Berthold.

Regional qualifiers and the district championship will be played on Monday starting at 4:30 p.m.

Alex Eisen covers Minot High School, Minot State athletics and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.