Thunder win one of five at Northern Cass Tourney

The M-P-B Thunder volleyball team started their season at the challenging Northern Cass Tournament, held Saturday, August 27.

Coach Jacie Connell's club finished with a 1-4 record in the tourney, playing against several quality opponents during the weekend.

The Thunder went the distance of three sets in losses to Hankinson (24-26, 25-11, 13-15) and Hillsboro/Central Valley (15-25, 25-15, 11-15), and also gave Region 3 contender Oakes a bit of a scare in a two-set loss, 20-25 and 24-26.

Even with three losses, that was good enough to get M-P-B the ninth overall seed out of 20 teams at the tournament, and they advanced to the Blue Bracket featuring the 9-12 seeds.

In their first round of bracket play, M-P-B got in the win column for the first time against Hatton-Northwood (25-12, 25-19) but their tournament came to an end with a loss to Wyndmere-Lidgerwood. The score for the match against the Warbirds was unavailable.

The home squad, the Northern Cass Jaguars, won the tournament by defeating Langdon/Edmore/Munich in the finals. Defending State B champion Linton-HMB placed third.

Cumulative stats from the tournament for M-P-B are as follows:

Kills: Allison Thomas 36, Maddie Gefroh 24, Brynn Sorenson 20, Kelsey Vandeberghe 13, Kalen Kinzell 3, Lilly Bohl and Alaina Bosche 2, Cierra Mack 1.

Assists: L. Bohl 97, Bosche and Mack 4, Violet Bohl and Thomas 1.

Aces: Mack 8, Bosche 7, Kinzell and Sorenson 5, L. Bohl 3, Thomas 2, V. Bohl 1.

Blocks: Gefroh, Sorenson and Vandeberghe 2, Thomas 1.

Digs: Bosche 65, Thomas 48, Sorenson 38, Sophie Bohl 24, L. Bohl 17, Kinzell 6, Mack and Vandeberghe 1.