Mike Kraft/MDN South Prairie-Max begins its first season in the newly-formed Class A after advancing to the Class B state title game last year for the first time in program history.

Familiarity will not be the theme for the South Prairie-Max volleyball team this season, but that doesn’t mean the goals or the expectations have changed.

Fresh off their first region championship and state tournament appearance in which they finished runner-up to Langdon Area/Munich, the Royals have moved up from Class B to the newly-formed Class A, as North Dakota shifts to a three-class system beginning this year. This new version of Class A features four regions encompassing seven schools each for 28 total programs. Five schools – Wahpeton, Valley City, Devils Lake, Turtle Mountain and Watford City – make the move down from what is now Class AA, while the remaining 23 teams played in Class B last season. Three other schools – Oak Grove, Thompson and Dickinson Trinity – were among the Class B state tournament field last year along with the Royals.

“We’ll be seeing some different teams we haven’t seen before and getting to see some new competition,” South-Prairie Max coach Lisa McQueen said. “There were some great Class B teams we’ve played in the past and we still have them on our schedule, but just getting to see that other level of competition in Class A.”

McQueen begins her first season at the helm, inheriting a program that finished 34-7 a year ago and were just two sets away from claiming their first state title. McQueen has been away from volleyball for a few years, but she brings plenty of experience to the court as a former player herself, as well as a coach at every level. She has coached at a number of schools throughout the state, from the fifth and sixth grade levels all the way up to varsity.

The biggest question facing the Royals is how they will replace the production left by Azjiah Trader, last year’s Class B Senior Athlete of the Year. Trader, now a member of the Minot State volleyball program, was named all-district four times, all-region three times and first-team all-state twice during her time at South Prairie-Max.

“Obviously we look a little bit different without Azjiah Trader and Delaney Henkel and some others, but I think we’ll have a pretty good spread out offense and some good juniors and seniors that are pretty good leaders and developing a good culture for our team,” McQueen said.

Trader was among four seniors the Royals graduated, but four new seniors take their place in the lineup.

One of those seniors is outside hitter Skotti Beck. While she admits that the team will look a bit different without Trader leading the group, she’s looking forward to seeing what the new crop of talent is going to look like this year.

“We have a lot of really good talent,” Beck said. “A few new girls. A new libero. I’m excited to get started and play with all of them because it’s more than a relationship on the court. It’s a good one off the court, too. We have a little bit of a different team without Trader, but our team is still going to be really good and we still have a lot of talent and younger girls who are going to step up.”

With a new coach comes new strategies. McQueen said she is looking to run more of a 6-2 offense as opposed to the 5-1 offense the team has run in the past. McQueen believes the 6-2 style of offense compliments the number of hitters the Royals have and plays to their strengths. The 6-2 rotation allows for a second setter to be on the floor, with one of them serving as a hitter when playing the front row. With the 5-1 rotation, there is just one dedicated setter on the court at all times, but they are not allowed to hit when playing the front row. They are, however, allowed to take advantage of the dump shot when playing up front.

“We just have a little bit more options this season with the girls that have come up in the program,” McQueen said.

The Royals move from their original home in District 12 at the Class B level, which also included Our Redeemer’s, Bishop Ryan, Des-Lacs Burlington, Berthold, Glenburn, Surrey and Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood. They also said goodbye to Region 6 and teams like Drake-Anamoose, TGU, Westhope-Newburg and Velva.

Now they are part of Region 3 in a Class A that does away with districts. Following them from their former region in Class B is DL-B, Bottineau, Rugby and Nedrose. Newcomers to their schedule include Turtle Mountain and Stanley. DL-B, Bottineau and Stanley all have appeared in the state tournament, with Stanley leading the pack with six.

“I’m not too worried about it to be honest because I know whoever has the best connection on the court is going to win,” Beck said. “We’re just going to work together, try our hardest and go for that win.”

Des Lacs-Burlington energized by move to Class A

Des Lacs-Burlington has yielded state-tournament worthy rosters in the past, but due to a more than decades worth of dominance by Our Redeemer’s as well as the recent emergence of South Prairie-Max within Class B Region 6, the Lakers always found themselves on the outside looking in.

Had it not been for ORCS and South Prairie-Max, which has represented the region at the state tournament 10 of the last 11 years, DL-B might have more than just the one appearance at state in 2021 to its name.

While the Lakers will still have to contend with South Prairie-Max, they will no longer have to worry themselves with trying to get past ORCS in the region tournament as they are one of 28 teams making the move to the newly-formed Class A as the state shifts to a three-class system. An added perk to the three-class system is more opportunities to advance to the state tournament, as each of the four regions has an opportunity to send as many as three representatives to the final weekend depending how they fare at regionals. All four region tournament champions will automatically qualify for the state tournament, with the region runner-up as well as the winner of the third-place match advancing to a state-qualifier against their adjacent region. For example, the Region 3 runner-up would play the third-place winner of Region 4 and the Region 4 runner-up would play the third-place winner of Region 3, with those two winners advancing to state. The same scenario would be true for Regions 1 and 2.

“That definitely takes off a little bit of pressure that you don’t have to win the region championship and you don’t even have to be in the region championship game to still have a possibility to still making it to the state championship, so it keeps the girls going and having a goal to work toward,” DL-B coach Erica Moen said.

Moen was in her first year as head coach when she guided the Lakers to their only state tournament appearance. Now, the team is itching to get back to state and start the beginning of a new era of volleyball on a high note. The Lakers finished 26-13 in their final season in Class B, finishing third in District 12 before placing fourth at the Region 6 tournament.

Along with their Region 3 schedule, which features home and road contests against South Prairie-Max, Bottineau, Nedrose, Turtle Mountain, Stanley and Rugby, DL-B has a few other new faces on its schedule, like Beulah, Watford City, Hazen and Dickinson Trinity.

“I’m excited just having some different competition this year than what we’ve had in the past,” Moen said. “We still do have some teams in our region from the past years when we’ve been in Class B, but I’m just excited that we get to play some different competition, especially some bigger schools that will be good for us and our program, but I am going to miss the big rival games we had with surrounding schools that we won’t really get anymore.”

The Lakers roster features four seniors – Logan Ystaas, Hope Walen, Maizy Frey and Mycah Faken – with both blocking and hitting being their biggest strengths entering the season, according to Moen. Faken and sophomore middle blocker Hanna Sundsbak stand at 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-11, respectively, creating a sizable wall in front of the net when paired together.

With confidence in those two areas, the Lakers shift their focus on serve-receive.

“I always tell the girls if we can’t serve-receive we can’t play the game,” Moen said. “We’ve really been working a lot on serve-receive, just trying to make it easier for our setters and our hitters. Trying out different rotations and trying to figure out who best fits where, but just a lot of serve-receive and playing to see what the girls can do on the court.”

While the path to a state tournament may have more options than in year’s past, Moen knows that nothing is guaranteed. Even with the smaller region sizes, the competition isn’t going to be any less daunting.

“Our region is going to be very competitive,” Moen said. “We have to be ready to play our best game every night. We can’t overlook any team. With there only being seven teams in the region, the seedings can definitely flip flop because we play every team twice now instead of just once. Every night we’re going to have to come with our ‘A’ game because it really could be anyone’s game.”