The Region 6 volleyball tournament gets under way today at the Minot Municipal Auditorium with four teams from District 11 and four teams from District 12 competing to be the last squad standing in the single-elimination tournament.

The sole survivor advances to the eight-team Class B state tournament being held at the Fargodome next week.

Here is an overview of the first-round matchups taking place today.

D11 No. 1 Rugby

Alex Eisen/MDN Our Redeemer’s junior Makiah Frederick (17) tips the ball over the net in the Knights District 12 championship victory over Des Lacs-Burlington.

(30-3) vs. D12 No. 4 Bishop Ryan (16-20), 3 p.m.

The Rugby Panthers have won the last four District 11 tournaments and reached the Region 6 title match last season. That was the farthest a District 11 team has advanced in a few seasons with District 12 teams sweeping all four of the first-round matches in 2015, 2014 and 2013.

Rugby swept both its matches over Towner-Granville-Upham and Bottineau to capture the district title. In the district tournament, the Panthers were led by junior outside hitter Maria Blessum (20 kills), senior outside hitter Sara Stier (16 kills) and senior middle blocker Madison Uhlenkamp (five blocks).

Bishop Ryan returns to the regional tournament after fending off a feisty Surrey squad in a five-set regional qualifier showdown (17-25, 25-20, 26-24, 22-25, 20-18).

The last time the Lions were the No. 4 seed out of District 12 was in 2015 and they upset District 11 winner Rugby in five sets.

Senior outside hitter McKinlee Harmon racked up 56 kills over the three matches in the District 12 tournament, while sophomore Grace Candrian tossed up 102 assists. Candrian continues to fill in for former setter Sealy Rovig, who has been sidelined with an injury for a majority of the season.

D12 No. 2 Des Lacs-Burlington (28-9) vs. D11 No. 3 Velva (17-13), 4:30 p.m.

For the past three regional tournaments (2014-16) and four district tournaments (2014-17), the DLB Lakers have fallen victim to Our Redeemer’s dynasty.

In the seven postseason matches played against each other, the Lakers have yet to take a set (0-21) from the Knights while losing two regional finals and three district finals in the process.

DLB got close to winning a set this year in the district final with a 25-22 defeat in the second frame.

The Lakers lean on senior Caitlyn Vogel, who rotates between being the setter and middle hitter, senior defensive specialist Rylie Oen, junior middle hitter Kyley Lauf and sophomore libero Kali Lucier.

On Oct. 23, DLB swept the Velva Aggies (25-23, 25-15, 25-17).

After losing in five sets to Bottineau in the district semifinals, Velva recovered with a quick sweep of Nedrose (25-11, 25-17, 25-17) to claim its spot at the regional tournament.

Junior middle hitter Rachel Mack put down a team-high 33 kills in the district tournament. Fellow junior setter Hope Brewer collected double-digit aces over the three matches and was incredibly consistent by dealing out 22 assists in each match.

The Aggies reached the regional semifinals last season after upsetting Ryan in five sets. In the semifinals, Velva went the distance again against Rugby, but came up short (25-21, 25-27, 25-19, 18-25, 15-10).

D12 No. 1 Our Redeemer’s (32-7) vs. D11 No. 4 Towner-Granville-Upham (14-14), 6 p.m.

The heavy favorite Knights haven’t dropped a Region 6 tournament set since 2014. That’s 27 sets in a row for nine victories and three consecutive regional championships (2014-16).

ORCS swept its way to a fourth straight District 12 tournament title last week and appears locked in on winning the school’s first-ever state championship.

In an instant classic to conclude last season, the Knights lost in the state championship match despite storming back from being down two sets to force a fifth frame against LaMoure.

That team featured three All-Tournament state players (Morgan Olson, Makayla Gardner and Lauren Hendrickson) and the Senior Athlete of the Year (Olson). All of which, were seniors and have since graduated.

This year’s squad, however, hasn’t seemed to miss a beat and is also being led by three seniors: District 12 Senior Athlete of the Year Ryleigh Popinga, outside hitter Karolynn Winger and setter Karlee Zablotney.

TGU gets the first crack at the tough task of taking down ORCS. The Titans reached the regional tournament for the second season in a row with a pair of five-set wins over Nedrose and Drake-Anamoose.

In the district tournament, sophomore Jaidyn Brummond recorded two double-digit kill matches and had 14 aces against Nedrose in the first round. Junior Melanie Anderson finished with 20-plus digs twice.

D11 No. 2 Bottineau (24-9) vs. D12 No. 3 Lewis & Clark (24-13), 7:30 p.m.

Bottineau returns to the regional tournament for the seventh straight season and surely wants to make amends for what happened last year — scoring just 12 points (25-1, 25-6, 25-5) in a first-round sweep by ORCS.

The Stars have lost in the first round of the regional tournament the last four years, and three of those four times (2013-15) they were the higher seed.

Leading the way to break that streak are seniors Lexi Gullett and Kaitlyn Christenson, along with junior London Andel, junior Jaclyn Hanson and sophomore Sammy Hill.

The hosts of the District 12 tournament in Berthold, Lewis & Clark nearly upended DLB in the district semifinals by going to five sets. But, the Bombers had to settle with a 3-1 win over Glenburn to get to regionals.

Holding the same seeds, L&C swept Bottineau two years in the first round of the Region 6 tournament.

The Bombers have an upperclassmen-laden team with one lone underclassman being sophomore Toni Hamilton, who is L&C’s tallest player at 5-foot-11 and a force in the middle.

Setting up the offense is senior setter Laura Vangsness with the following hitters around her: senior Lyvia Roark, senior Grace Simons, junior Corina Pabian and junior Ava Rogers. Senior libero Cody Ryan anchors the defense.

The three-day Region 6 tournament is being held today (first round), Tuesday (semifinals) and Thursday (championship) at the Minot Auditorium. The Class A and Class B state volleyball tournament takes place Nov. 16-18 at the Fargodome.

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