Submitted Photo Our Redeemer’s senior setter Grace Olson (right) sets senior middle hitter Brooklynn Roedocker (left) up for the kill in the Knights’ state quarterfinal match against the Linton-HMB Lions. Photo by Lyle Ripplinger

Our Redeemer’s had hope that it could pull the upset in its quarterfinal match against No. 3 seed Linton-HMB at the state tournament.

The Knights also had Hope, as in junior right-side hitter Hope Gravley. While she isn’t one whose name appears regularly on the stat sheet, Gravley showed up on the biggest of stages to help No. 6 seed Our Redeemer’s knock off the Lions in four sets, 25-21, 25-20, 15-25, 25-18, at the Class B state tournament on Thursday, Nov. 20, at the Bismarck Event Center.

Gravley recorded six kills and five digs and the Knights advanced to the semifinal round on Friday, Nov. 21, where they will play Medina-Pingree-Buchanan at 9 a.m. at the Bismarck Event Center’s Main Hall. It will be the eighth appearance in the state semifinals for Our Redeemer’s.

“Hope Gravley did a tremendous job,” Our Redeemer’s coach Kara Nunziato said. “Linton set up their outside hitters the whole afternoon and Hope did a great job of playing the block and she was quick playing short defense and was also an offensive weapon on the right side.”

Things got off to a bumpy start for the Knights, falling behind 11-6 in the opening set. From there, Our Redeemer’s countered with a 7-0 run to take a 13-11 advantage. Gravley had a kill during the run and Kadyn Braun added two of her match-high 16. Ellie Streyle served up a pair of aces.

The Knights (28-11-3) held the lead the rest of the set, growing the advantage to four points at one point following a kill by Brooklynn Roedocker. The Lions didn’t go quietly, cutting the deficit down to 22-21. Our Redeemer’s responded by tallying the final three points on a Roedocker kill, a Braun kill and a Tessa Carlson ace.

Lauren Strom was relatively quiet in the opening set, but made her presence known at the net in the second set. Following an ace from Gravley to tie the set at 5, Strom got on the stat sheet with her first kill of the match to give the Knights the lead. She’d add another a few points later and her first block pushed the advantage to 17-13.

Strom finished with seven kills and all five of the team’s blocks.

The Knights didn’t allow the Lions to establish any momentum, keeping them from earning more than a point or two without countering with a point of their own. It allowed Our Redeemer’s to hold on to the lead down the stretch. Braun, Roedocker, Gravley and Noel Pankratz helped secure a 2-0 set advantage for the Knights, putting them on the cusp of a semifinal appearance.

Linton-HMB (34-5-1) had no intentions of being swept, and made that clear early in the third set. The Lions had taken early leads in the first two sets only to see the Knights come back, but the third set belonged to Linton-HMB.

Macy Hase, Bobbie Janczewski and Emmrey Baumgartner helped the Lions jump out early and continue to build on their lead. Their lead reached double digits on three separate occasions in the third set at 18-8, 19-9 and 21-11.

“It’s natural for teams to get a little too comfortable when they get up two sets and we knew that Linton was a team that would never just give up a game,” Nunziato said. “They came out swinging and we just got caught making errors and they really capitalized on that momentum shift. We kept encouraging everyone to flip the switch and establish some momentum if we go to a fourth set.”

Hase and Janczewski finished tied for the team lead in kills with 13. Baumgartner was right behind them with 12.

The Knights turned to their big hitters to put the Lions away in the fourth. Braun, Roedocker, Pankratz and Strom were responsible for all of their offensive points in the final set. Linton-HMB didn’t tally more than three unanswered points throughout the set, while the Knights had a pair of runs allowing them to grow leads as big as eight.

Braun isn’t typically at the top of the stat sheet in the kills category, but she took advantage of extended time spent playing in the front row.

“A lot of times Kadyn finds herself in the back row for most of the games because when she and Ellie are working together in the back row we don’t rotate as quickly out of those front row rotations. Kadyn found herself in the front row and she placed the ball so well. She really saw the floor. She put in some crafty shots down the line. She did a nice job placing the ball where our opponent wasn’t.”

Roedocker and Pankratz had 13 and 12, respectively. Ellie Streyle had team highs in aces (3) and digs (26).

“While we all agree that this is icing on our season’s cake, winning is what every team wants to do” Nunziato said. “They want to find themselves in the championship game. From a coach’s aspect it’s going to be great because everyone’s going to be motivated to go to bed early.”

Surrey wins opening set, falls to Patriots in first state tournament match

While it was its first state tournament appearance in program history, the Surrey volleyball team wasn’t treating it like a vacation.

Instead, they came to the Bismarck Event Center looking to win.

The Mustangs won their opening set, but Medina-Pingree-Buchanan rallied to win the next three, knocking off Surrey, 22-25, 25-22, 26-24, 25-22, in the Class B state tournament quarterfinals on Thursday. The Thunder advanced to the semifinal round, where they will play Our Redeemer’s on Friday, Nov. 21, at 9 a.m. at the Bismarck Event Center’s Main Hall.

Despite the 9 a.m. curtain call, Surrey wasn’t sleepwalking through its match, especially not early. The Mustangs showed early that they weren’t going to be an easy out despite entering as the No. 7 seed. Surrey led nearly wire-to-wire in the opening set against the No. 2 seed Thunder.

A steady dose of Mekenzie Neighbors, Khloe Spaulding and Camryn Guy helped fuel a 7-1 run midway through the opening set to give the Mustangs a 14-7 advantage. The lead grew as large as eight points at 20-12 before M-P-B made a late charge, closing the gap to two at 21-19. The Thunder would stave off two set points, but Neighbors gave Surrey its first set victory at the state tournament in program history with one of her 12 kills on the day.

It was more of the same early in the second set for the Mustangs, who jumped out to a 7-4 lead with three kills and a block from Spaulding, a kill from Neighbors and an ace from Guy. Surrey led 10-7 when Destiny Opp took over the match for the Thunder (26-7). The junior middle hitter led a 6-0 run in which she had five kills in that stretch to rally her team. The Thunder didn’t trail again in the set.

The Mustangs (5-29) attempted a late rally, and a pair of kills from Neighbors got Surrey to within 23-21. A kill by M-P-G’s Violet Bohl set up set point for the Thunder, and on their second attempt, they put the set away with Opp putting the ball down.

Surrey was one point away from taking a 2-1 set lead, but the Thunder won the final three points and capitalized on their set point where the Mustangs were unsuccessful. A shot into the net from M-P-G gave Surrey a 24-23 lead. Brynn Sorenson kept the set going with one of her 19 kills in the match to square the set before an ace by Marly Hoffmann put the Thunder within a point of taking the match lead. Sorenson delivered with a kill on set point to put the Thunder within a set of the semifinals.

Neighbors and Ava Keller did all they could to try and force a fifth-set tiebreaker, combining for 10 kills in the fourth, but the combination of Opp and Sorenson won the duel in the end. Shayla Martin and Aubree Lachenmeier also got in the mix to help put the Thunder ahead. Trailing 13-10 in the fourth, Martin recorded a kill and a block and Lachenmeier served up two aces. A kill by Sorenson mixed in gave M-P-B a 14-13 advantage.

The Mustangs battled back from a 20-17 deficit and drew even on a Neighbors’ ace. But the Thunder won five of the final seven points to end Surrey’s title hopes. Opp had two of the final kills and Martin gave the Thunder match point, which ended on a shot into the net.

Opp finished with a match-high 22 kills. Opp and Sorenson combined for 41 of the Thunders’ 51 kills. Sorenson also had a match-high 28 digs.

Keller joined Neighbors with 12 kills and Spaulding added nine. Neighbors had a team-high 25 digs. Keller and Spaulding stuffed seven shots a piece at the net.

The Mustangs will play a consolation match against Linton-HMB on Friday, Nov. 21, at 5 p.m. at the Bismarck Event Center’s Exhibit Hall.