Alex Eisen/MDN Our Redeemer’s sophomore setter Eden Olson (left) acts surprised after assisting a kill Thursday evening against Velva in Minot. Olson surpassed 1,500 assists in her high school career during the Class B volleyball match.

Eden Olson has been around the block a few times.

The experienced sophomore setter for the Our Redeemer’s volleyball team has been tossing up assists since she was an eighth-grader on the varsity team.

Thursday night in the first set against the Velva Aggies, Olson served up her 1,500th career assist.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Olson said. “I’m just really grateful for the team and that I’ve been able to play for such good teams at Our Redeemer’s.”

Rightfully said, an assist milestone of that magnitude couldn’t be celebrated without sharing it with all the teammates Olson continuously relies on to put down kills.

With Olson setting up the offense, the five-time defending Region 6 champion Knights (8-0) rolled Thursday to earn a 3-0 sweep over Velva (4-5) by set scores of 25-7, 25-17, 25-16.

“They really enjoy playing together,” ORCS head coach Kara Nunziato said about her team. “They are a very unified group.”

Olson notched her 1,500th career assist early into the contest, giving the Knights a 5-2 lead in the opening set.

Nunziato called a timeout to acknowledge the moment.

“Eden (Olson) is such a phenomenal setter,” Nunziato said. “She is extremely smart and has great court awareness. Tonight, as a sophomore to achieve 1,500 assists is a pretty huge milestone.”

Olson still has a ways to go to catch recent ORCS standout and current school record holder Karlee Zablotney, who finished with 3,362 career assists.

Olson attributes a lot of her setting success to another ORCS volleyball great, her older sister Morgan (Olson) Strand.

“Morgan really taught me how to play volleyball,” Olson said. “When I was little, she taught me how to do my hands correctly and taught me basically everything I know about the game.”

Olson finished with 26 assists on Thursday.

Senior Annie Folden benefited from nearly half of them, putting down a match-high 12 kills. Folden also got crafty with her serve and notched seven aces.

A handful of them came in a row during the first frame, as the Knights cruised to a 25-7 set win to open the match.

Velva hung around longer in the following sets.

“We have been struggling with our blocks a lot so far this season,” Velva head coach Cassidy Peterson said. “I felt like we got a lot of touches on a lot of really good swings (by ORCS). So, I’m happy with that. Our players just need to have more confidence coming in. Make sure we are aggressive on offense and not just always playing defense against some of these harder teams.”

The Aggies got as close as 9-8 in the second set before ORCS bolted away for a 25-17 win. Sophomore Cheyenne Lang knocked down the set-winning kill. She finished with six kills in total.

Three straight attack errors by Velva allowed ORCS to open a 9-3 lead in the third set, and then Peterson had to call a timeout down 12-4 later in the frame.

The Aggies regained momentum and got the deficit down to three points, 18-15, on an ace by junior Reagan Hildre — the only ace Velva produced in the whole match.

“Our libero (Grace Pfennig) got hurt earlier this year, she came back and I thought she read the ball really well,” Peterson said. “And one of our middles (Rylee Frantsen) has been new to the varsity middle spot, and she did well with just reading the block better.”

ORCS scored seven out of the next eight points to wrap up the match with a 25-16 set three victory. Junior Macy Lindquist smacked down her fifth kill to end the contest. Olson on the assist.

“I feel like we are solid all the way around,” Olson said. “We are a pretty good passing team and a pretty good swinging team.”

Senior Aubry Mahoney led the Aggies’ attack with four kills. Junior Madison Effertz provided seven assists and eight digs.

For the Knights, senior libero Téa Boeckel had six digs and four aces. Junior Olivia Nelson put up three blocks. Sophomore Sydney Popinga added five kills.

ORCS will play in the Casselton Tournament this Saturday, while Velva’s next match is Sept. 17 at home against Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood.

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