Needing 23 kills to cross over the 1,000-career kill plateau, Vogel shocked herself by putting down 24 kills in a 3-0 sweep over Velva in the first round of the Region 6 volleyball tournament Monday at the Minot Municipal Auditorium.

“It feels so good,” Vogel said. “I really didn’t expect it to be this game… It’s really exciting to be a part of regionals this year and we just want to bring the excitement to hopefully the championship and hopefully state.”

It wasn’t an easy sweep for the District 12 runner-up Lakers (29-9) with District 11 No. 3-seeded Velva (17-14) falling by set scores of 25-22, 25-20, 25-18.

“We played them in the regular season and it went very similarly to what we saw tonight,” DLB coach Tarra Hysjulien said. “They are a scrappy team and if we didn’t take care of our own side then it could go either way with quite a few of the points.”

Alex Eisen/MDN Velva sophomore libero Grace Mogen (4) makes a dig Monday in a Region 6 tournament first-round match against DLB.

The regular season game also ended in a DLB sweep.

The Lakers had control for most of the opening set until the Aggies tied the score at 17-17. The score remained tied at 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 points before Vogel took over with a couple of kills and a Velva attack error wrapped up the set win, 25-22.

“They really pulled through when they needed to and got the job done,” Hysjulien said.

Tied at 14-14 in the second set, the Lakers unleashed a 7-0 run. Velva recovered to score six more points in the frame, but a kill by DLB sophomore Alyea Casavant sealed the set, 25-20.

DLB took its first lead of the third set at 8-7. A kill from Velva senior Greta Florence had the Aggies back into the lead at 17-16. Florence finished with a match-high 17 digs and also had six kills. Junior Rachel Mack had a team-high 11 kills for Velva.

The Lakers finished off the first-round match with kills from junior Kyley Lauf, sophomore Sara Bonn and a block by Vogel. Lauf collected seven kills, Bonn had four kills and freshman setter Ava Wille tossed 16 assists to go with eight digs. DLB sophomore libero Kali Lucier picked up 10 digs.

“I think we got into our own heads a lot,” Velva coach Cassidy Peterson said. “We didn’t perform as well as we should have. DLB played a great game and we made simple errors that we shouldn’t have made.”

Regardless, it was a memorable season for the Aggies.

“I definitely think we shocked a lot of people,” Peterson said. “We lost 12 seniors from last year, so pretty much everyone except one returning player. We had a lot of young girls that came in and stepped up.”

DLB advances to face District 11 winner Rugby in the regional semifinals 6 p.m. this evening at the Minot Municipal Auditorium.

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