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Titans toppled

Defense dominates in ORCS first-round sweep of Dickinson Trinity

Al Christianson/Special to MDN Our Redeemer's senior Karolynn Winger (3) attacks the ball in the first round of the Class B state volleyball tournament against Dickinson Trinity at the Fargodome.

FARGO — A desperation dig followed up with a block by Makiah Frederick in the middle of the third set nicely summed up the Our Redeemer’s Christian School volleyball team’s first-round state tournament victory over Dickinson Trinity Thursday evening at the Fargodome.

Knights’ defense handled everything the No. 5-seeded Titans (32-8-3) could hit their way by racking up 63 team digs and No. 4-seeded ORCS (37-7) swept its way into the state semifinals by set scores of 25-18, 25-21, 25-15.

“I am so impressed with how these athletes came out and handle Day 1 of the state tournament,” ORCS coach Kara Nunziato said. “If you don’t have a defensive team, then you aren’t going to have an offensive team. So, the defense was the unsung heroes tonight. They did a tremendous job putting the ball in positions so we could run an efficient and effective offense.”

After junior Breanna Tessier scored the first point of the match on a kill for Dickinson Trinity, the Knights responded with the next four points and continued to pull away with kills coming from all over the court.

Ryleigh Popinga dropped in a ball from a back-row attack, Karolynn Winger was hammering the ball down and setter Karlee Zablotney was sneaky with some surprise one-handed floaters over the net.

The senior trio led the Knights’ offense over the course of the match with nine or more kills each.

Zablotney finished with an impressive triple-double with a team-high 12 kills, 14 assists and 15 digs.

Popinga had a double-double with a team-high 16 digs and 11 kills.

“Communication for defense is definitely key because if you don’t know who is going (to the ball), then it just drops,” Popinga said. “We knew coming in that they have really strong hitters, so when we know what they are going to do, we can place our defense where they are going to hit. I think we did that tonight.”

Frederick added: “We wanted to set up a strong block against them and we did that a few times tonight, so that was really good… I just love getting blocks. It’s so much fun just stuffing them, but they put up some really good competition tonight.”

Trailing 19-9 in the first set, Dickinson Trinity made things interesting with seven straight points — due in large part to the serving of junior Masy Kuntz. Kuntz led the Titans in four statistical categories with 11 kills, five digs, four blocks and three aces.

The Knights, however, regrouped to take the opening set 25-18.

The Titans scored the first three points of the second set, but ORCS stormed back and took control with a 7-0 run. Impenetrable defense grew the Knights lead out to nine points at 19-10.

Dickinson Trinity, like they did in the first set, rallied in the middle of the frame. An ace by junior Farrah Zeller and a kill from Kuntz capped a 9-0 run by the Titans to knot the score at 19-19.

“That’s just the game of volleyball,” Nunziato said. “You are going to have game of runs and momentum. I think they proved that they can handle those moments with composure and kind of fight back until they see a 25 on their side.”

Winger came to the rescue late in the second set with a pair of put downs, with Popinga and Zablotney cleaning up with two more kills. An attack error gave the Knights the second set, 25-21.

The Titans hung around in the third frame until Frederick came up with back-to-back blocks and Zablotney continued to fool the Dickinson Trinity defense with no-look floaters from the setter position.

Frederick was helped by Annie Folden at the net, who finished with a team-high three blocks. While Zablotney shared her setting duties with eighth grader Eden Olson, who collected a team-high 17 assists.

“The two-setter offense is awesome,” Nunziato said. “I think it just allows us to have three hitters consistently across the net. It gives us a lot of opportunities to put the ball pin-to-pin.”

ORCS closed the match out on a 11-4 run to capture the third frame 25-15.

The Knights advance to face the two-defending state champions and top overall seed LaMoure-Litchville-Marion in the state semifinals.

That match is scheduled to be played at 7 p.m. this evening following the conclusion of the other Class B state semifinal between No. 2 Langdon Area/Edmore/Litchville and No. 3 Thompson at 5 p.m.

All Class A and Class B state tournament volleyball matches are being played at the Fargodome.

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

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