Submitted Photo South Prairie-Max sophomore Reagan Trudell sets the ball in their quarterfinals match of the 2025 NDHSAA Division A Volleyball State Tournament against Hazen High School. Photo by Lyle Ripplinger

This might only be its second trip to the state tournament, but the South Prairie-Max volleyball team looked like seasoned veterans in its quarterfinal match against Hazen.

The Royals looked every bit like the No. 1 team in Class A, jumping out to large leads in all three sets en route to a convincing sweep of No. 8 seed Hazen in their quarterfinal match at the state tournament on Thursday, Nov. 20, at the Bismarck Event Center. South Prairie-Max has now won 19 consecutive matches, a streak that includes three wins against Hazen.

Next up for the Royals (34-3-1) is a semifinal match against Valley City on Friday, Nov. 21, at 3 p.m. at the Bismarck Event Center’s Main Arena. A win would put the Royals in the title match for a second straight year.

The Region 4 champion was no match for South Prairie-Max. The Royals scored 20 of the match’s first 28 points on the strength of their biggest hitters in Keira Francis and Skotti Beck. Francis and Beck have been South Prairie-Max’s top two kills producers all season, both accumulating more than 300. Francis eclipsed 400 kills on the season with her match-high 14 against Hazen.

“We played great as a team unit,” South Prairie-Max coach Lisa McQueen said. “We came out with lots of energy.”

The Bison (20-13-3) whittled their deficit down to single digits in the opening set, but dug too deep a hole to climb out of. That was the theme of the day for Hazen, which again allowed the Royals to get out to a sizable advantage in the middle set. South Prairie-Max scored the set’s first six points with kills by Abby Mikkelson and Kinley Schilla and an ace from Reagan Trudell. Beck added six of her 11 kills in the set.

Hazen got as close as four points at 16-12 off a kill from Tia Klein, but the Bison frequently saw its deficit hover between six and seven points throughout the match, never able to go on a big enough run to offset a slow start. Back-to-back kills from Beck ended the second set and put the Royals firmly in command of the match.

It was more of the same in the third. Trudell and Beck scored the first four points of the set and South Prairie-Max opened the third on a 7-1 run. Unlike the previous two sets that saw the Bison chip away at their deficit, the third was dominated from start to finish by the Royals. Francis had a four-kill burst to stretch the lead to 14-4 and Trudell’s fourth and final ace further extended the advantage to 21-9. The Royals netted four of the final five points to advance to the semifinals.

Klein and Lauren Doll led the Bison with six kills each.

Along with her four aces, Trudell also dished out 14 assists, stuffed two shots and had six digs. Beck led the team with 12 digs.

“We served tough and played great defense,” McQueen said.

The Bison will play Thompson in a consolation semifinal match on Friday, Nov. 21, at 11 a.m. at the Bismarck Event Center’s Exhibit Hall.

Des Lacs-Burlington drops state quarterfinal match to Patriots

The Des Lacs-Burlington volleyball team looked like the No. 2 seed early, but it wasn’t long before May-Port-C-G showed why it was the team with that number next to its name on the bracket.

The Lakers jumped out early in the opening set, but once the Patriots found their legs in the morning hours, they never looked back. May-Port-C-G tracked down DL-B late in the first set and carried that momentum the rest of the way, sweeping the Lakers, 25-19, 25-22, 25-19, in the Class A state tournament quarterfinals on Thursday, Nov. 20, at the Bismarck Event Center. The Patriots will play Central Cass in a state semifinal match on Friday, Nov. 21, at 1 p.m. at the Bismarck Event Center’s Main Hall.

Mycah Faken and Piper Feller paced the Lakers early, helping their team build a four-point lead twice, the latter coming at 12-8. The Patriots made their run from there, eventually grabbing the lead 15-14. Paetyn Strand and Kiaza Carlson led the charge. The duo combined for 20 kills in the match, with Strand finishing with a team-high 11.

The Lakers dropped four of the first five points coming into the second set and never led despite making it interesting late. DL-B trailed by as many as five points at 17-12, but slowly chipped away at the Patriots’ advantage down the stretch. The Lakers got within 20-19 and 24-22, but ran out of opportunities. On the first set point of the second, May-Port-C-G put it away with a kill from Abby Sand.

With their backs against the wall, the Lakers didn’t start the third set the way it would have liked. They surrendered the first seven points of the set and fell behind 10-3 early. DL-B could only get as close as three points at 17-14 and 21-18.

Faken led the Lakers with 12 kills while Feller joined her in double figures with 19. Faken also had two blocks and an ace while Feller added two aces, a block and 10 digs.

DL-B will play a consolation semifinal match against Dickinson Trinity on Friday, Nov. 21, at 9 a.m. at the Bismarck Event Center’s Exhibit Hall.