Mike Kraft/MDN Glenburn senior middle blocker Emma Jones attempts to tip a shot over the block of Surrey’s Ava Keller during a District 6 quarterfinal match at the Minot Municipal Auditorium on Thursday, Oct. 30.

When the Glenburn volleyball team earned the No. 2 seed in the District 6 tournament, it thought it would have the favorable path toward a berth to regionals that comes from being a top-two seed.

What the Panthers didn’t expect was having to match up with arguably the most talented No. 10 seed a district tournament has ever had and will ever have going forward in Surrey.

The Mustangs finished the regular season in a three-way tie for the best record in the district, but were required to forfeit all of their district games after self-reporting an ineligible player, dropping them from the No. 3 seed all the way to the No. 10 seed.

Glenburn was unfazed by the last-minute opponent change, advancing to the district semifinal for the first time since 2020 with a 22-25, 25-15, 25-20, 25-8 victory over the Mustangs on Thursday, Oct. 30, at the Minot Municipal Auditorium.

The Panthers will play Velva in the semifinals for a chance to guarantee themselves a spot at regionals for just the sixth time in program history and the first since 2020.

The Mustangs drop into the consolation bracket and play an elimination match against Drake-Anamoose on Friday at 3 p.m.

“After we heard the news that we had to play technically the No. 3 seed in our district, we had to prepare a lot and we only had about two days to do that, but our girls went out and executed everything,” Glenburn coach Sierra Hansen said.

The No. 2 seed had to work a bit harder to earn its spot in Friday’s semifinal compared to 2020, as the Panthers advanced from a COVID-related forfeit against Surrey that season. Their last non-COVID-related quarterfinal victory came the previous year in 2019 when they defeated Berthold in straight sets.

After dropping the opening set much like they did in their four-set regular season victory against the Mustangs, the Panthers rallied back and found their rhythm. The Panthers didn’t lead in the opening set, but never trailed in the second and fourth set and only momentarily in the third.

Senior middle blocker Emma Jones was a key factor, recording a match-high 22 kills. She was limited to just two kills in the opening set, but contributed six in the second. She recorded four straight kills to help fuel an 8-2 run to build a 20-11 lead to pull Glenburn even through two sets.

“We knew we had to lock in early,” Jones said. “We knew it was going to be tough. We knew we had to push through and keep a good mindset and we pushed through.”

The Panthers had to rally late to claim the fourth set after the Mustangs took their largest lead of the set at 19-16.

Surrey’s Mekenzie Neighbors was the go-to option with six kills in the set, with her final kill giving her team that three-point advantage. But the Panthers responded with a mini 4-0 run with two kills from Ava Stevens and a kill and ace from Jones to grab the lead for good and take a 2-1 lead in the match.

“Glenburn was able to adjust and start covering our offense really well,” Surrey coach Michaela Martin said. “We started to step back on our defense. Glenburn just outplayed us, which is unfortunate, but not the end of the road for us.”

The final set belonged to Glenburn in what Hansen said was their most impressive set of the season. The Panthers jumped out to an 11-0 lead before Neighbors stopped the bleeding with one of her team-high 14 kills. Jones had five kills during the opening stretch and Milla Jones added an ace.

“Our girls wanted this so bad,” Hansen said. “We’ve never been this high in the district seeding, so our girls wanted to push as far as they could to make it to that championship night.”

Aubrie Quick added five kills and Ava Stevens and Milla Jones chipped in a pair to put an exclamation mark on the team’s victory. Stevens finished with 14 kills.

Sophie Cunningham set the offense in motion with 45 assists and also led the defensive effort with 30 digs.

‘Sophie plays a big part,” Emma Jones said. “She’s always hustling, always going and all of us go along with it. Aubrie has really stepped up. Ava had a really good game and found the open spots and everybody followed along with her and it kept going.”

Glenburn and Surrey would have potentially met in the district semifinal when the initial bracket was first released, but the Mustangs self-reported an ineligible player on their roster who had transferred to the school during last year’s school term and had been in the school system. Martin said the issue has been taken care of and it was an unfortunate error, but hasn’t had an impact on the team.

“It’s an unfortunate loss we had with that player,” Martin said. “We just view that 10th-seed change as an extra game. Walked in, played great against Bishop Ryan. They gave us a good game. Other than that, the girls have been really positive in what they’re doing and have stayed on top of their game and what we need to do to be successful.”

The Mustangs had to participate in a play-in game against Bishop Ryan on Tuesday, Oct. 28, a match they won in straight sets.

The other tournament matches saw No. 3 Velva outlast No. 6 Drake-Anamoose in five sets. The Aggies won the opening two sets, but the Raiders responded by taking the third and fourth sets to force a fifth-set tiebreaker. Velva regrouped and dominated the fifth set to win the match, 25-21, 25-21, 22-25, 21-25, 15-3.

Top-seeded Our Redeemer’s swept No. 9 TGU, 25-10, 25-13, 25-7, to advance to the semifinals and will play No. 5 Berthold, which got past No. 4 Newburg-Westhope in straight sets, 25-18, 26-24, 25-17.