Mike Kraft/MDN South Prairie-Max finished the regular season 31-3-1 and went unbeaten in regional play to earn the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye in the Class A Region 3 Tournament, which begins on Monday, Nov. 10, at Minot State University.

On paper, when looking at the season the Des Lacs-Burlington volleyball team had in its first year in the newly formed Class A division, it would be one that any team in the state would look fondly toward.

While the regular season did result in the Lakers finishing 9-3 in regional play and earning the No. 2 seed in the Region 3 Tournament, setting themselves up in prime position to compete for one of four available spots at the state tournament to be split between Region 3 and Region 4, it could not have been a more tumultuous start for DL-B.

Following a season-opening victory at Beulah and playing in the Volley in the Valley Tournament, the Lakers were eager to play their first match on their home court. By the end of the night, DL-B won the match, but lost three of its players to season-ending injuries. Logen Ystaas – a senior and three-year starting outside hitter – suffered a torn ACL, as did sophomore outside hitter Khyla Rosencrans. Sophomore setter Grace Schaefer tore her UCL.

A bit shellshocked, the Lakers dropped a four-set match to Our Redeemer’s the following night and for a moment, it looked as if a promising season was about to be decimated by injuries.

“I think honestly we didn’t have time to think about it that night and we were still able to go out and get the win,” DL-B coach Erica Moen said. “After that it was a hard next day when we got the news about the injuries that they had. We as a team talked about it and said that we can’t change anything and we have to go out and play. Those girls that had the injuries have been the biggest supporters of the girls who are playing out on the floor. We’re really just playing for them.”

The Lakers rallied behind their injured teammates, winning their next eight matches and finishing the season with a 21-12 record. Sophomore outside hitter Aspyn MacClennan has stepped up in Ystaas’ absence and senior Mycah Faken and sophomore Piper Feller have led the offense throughout the season.

“They have been huge for us,” Moen said. “They are our top-two leaders in kills on the team this year, so we really look for them when they are in the front row and every night it’s a combination of those two leading us in kills for the night. We’re really going to need them to step up in the region tournament and keep playing like how they’ve been playing.”

DL-B’s lone conference losses are to South Prairie-Max and Stanley, who are on the opposite side of the bracket. The Lakers are 6-0 against the teams on their side of the bracket: Nedrose, Bottineau and Turtle Mountain, dropping just one set in those six matches.

“It’s hard when you have to play everyone in the region twice and now this is going to be our third time playing people,” Moen said. “Everybody in the region is good and we have to come out and play our best volleyball, even the teams that are on our side of the bracket with us.”

The Lakers play Nedrose in the quarterfinal round at Minot State on Monday, Nov. 10, at approximately 5:30 p.m.

One team that will not be on the court on Monday is South Prairie-Max, because they clinched the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye. The Royals will await the winner of No. 4 seed Rugby and No. 5 seed Stanley in the semifinals on Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 5:30 p.m.

SP-M continued right where it left off last season following its best year in program history where the Royals won their first region title and advanced to the state championship match in their first appearance at state. Despite losing several key pieces from that team, including two-time all-state and Class B Senior Athlete of the Year Azjiah Trader, the Royals went undefeated in regional play, finished with a 31-3-1 overall record and ended the regular season as the top-ranked team in the Class A poll.

“We lost some key players from last year,” SP-M coach Lisa McQueen said. “We had about four girls with a lot of varsity experience. The girls that have stepped into those other roles have done a good job. I just feel like we’re pretty diverse in our offense and if a team’s shutting down one side of the net, we have options on the other side or the middle. They’ve worked well as a team, supporting each other and everyone playing a role and coming together as a team.”

During the regular season, the Royals won both the Coal Country Tournament and the Carrington Tournament and lost just one non-tournament match. SP-M enters the regional tournament on a 16-match winning streak.

Despite the success against region opponents and earning the No. 1 seed, the Royals remain focused on the task at hand of winning the Region 3 Tournament and clinching the automatic bid to the state tournament.

“We’ve talked about how being No. 1 can sometimes be a lot of extra pressure, but we should take it as a privilege to have that pressure and not let that get in our heads,” McQueen said. “Yeah, we’re No. 1, but we still have to go out there and perform and play our best volleyball and finish the season strong.”

The Royals have the most recent experience of making the state tournament, but they aren’t the only team in the region that has reached the final weekend of the postseason. The Lakers advanced to the state tournament in 2021 – their only appearance – and Stanley has been there six times, the most recent coming in 2019.

Stanley is the No. 5 seed and plays No. 4 Rugby in the quarterfinal round at 4 p.m. The other quarterfinal match features No. 3 Bottineau and No. 6 Turtle Mountain.

The move from a two-class system to a three-class system means more routes to the state tournament. A state tournament berth used to be reserved for just each of the eight regional tournament champions, but now with just four regions, teams that finish second and third have the ability to play themselves into the field by winning a cross-over match with their neighboring region. The runner-up from Region 3 will play the third-place match winner from Region 4, while the third-place match winner from Region 3 will play the runner-up from Region 4. Teams from Region 4 include Dickinson Trinity, Shiloh Christian, Hazen, Beulah, Watford City, Killdeer and New Town.

The Royals were 9-0 against Region 4 teams this season, while the Lakers were 6-1.

“We’ve played quite a bit of teams from Region 4,” Moen said. “We just played Dickinson Trinity. We played Hazen and Beulah earlier in the season. We’ve seen Shiloh Christian in a couple tournaments. If we do happen to be in that qualifying game I think we will be ready for any team we might face there.”

Considering everything the Lakers endured at the start of the season and how they were able to respond, Moen believes that earning a spot at the state tournament is a well-deserved reward.

“It would mean a lot to these girls,” Moen said. “At the beginning of the year we talked about a goal for the year, both as individuals and as a team and lots of them said they want to make the state tournament. It’s definitely an achievable goal for us and I think it would mean the world to these girls and this community with everything we’ve gone through.”