ORCS volleyball sweeps Surrey to start postseason play
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With no music playing due to technical difficulties, the District 12 volleyball tournament kicked off rather quietly inside the vast Minot Municipal Auditorium.
The top-seeded Our Redeemer's Knights (34-2-3) silenced the No. 8-seeded Surrey Mustangs (2-18) in a hurry Thursday afternoon by set scores of 25-6, 25-11, 25-4.
"The Aud is a big environment, and it's just nice to come in and get comfortable in the first set," ORCS head coach Kara Nunziato said. "They are a pretty motivated, goal-oriented group. They wanted to take care of their roles/positions, and they executed very well today."
The opening set featured a 13-1 Knights run. Senior middle hitter Annie Folden was causing havoc at the net, and sophomore setter Eden Olson was spreading the ball across the court. She finished with a match-high 29 assists.
"It feels great to finally get started," Olson said about getting postseason play underway. "We have been working all season to get here, and we are ready to show what we got."
After dropping the first set 25-6, Surrey traded points with ORCS up to 7-7 in the second set. The Knights used a 10-1 run after that to pull away, eventually taking the frame at 25-11.
"That's just the game of volleyball: momentum and errors," Nunziato said. "We had a few errors right off the bat, but I was happy to see the girls stay positive and push through."
With senior libero Téa Boeckel serving to start the third set, ORCS strung together nine straight points. Boeckel had three aces in the process.
Sophomore Cheyenne Lang one-upped her teammate with four straight aces later in the set to give ORCS a 15-1 lead.
Two more aces by sophomore Emily Brugman and a loft kill from Lang mercifully ended the set and match. The Mustangs only managed to four points in the final frame, 25-4.
The Knights racked up 15 aces in the match.
Folden led the way with 10 kills, followed by Lang (8), Sydney Popinga (6) and Macy Lindquist (5).
"The first day is always a little bit quiet for all the games," Olson said. "But it was OK. It got better towards the end. We just have to keep talking it up and having fun on every point."
The Knights advance to the District 12 Tournament semifinals against No. 4 rival Bishop Ryan at approximately 6 p.m. this evening at the Minot Municipal Auditorium.
"We have to take it one match at a time, regardless of who the opponent is," Nunziato said.
Surrey drops into the loser-out side of the bracket and will face No. 5 Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood at 3 p.m. this afternoon in Minot. Winner keeps its season alive.
Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.