The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The motto, “It’s not how you start but how you finish”, really held true for the North Star Bearcats and the Harvey-Wells County Hornets in the opening round of the Region 4 Volleyball Tournament.
The Bearcats finished the first two games in that fashion on their way to defeating the Hornets, 3-0, on Monday, November 7, at the Devils Lake Sports Center and end the Hornets’ volleyball season.
The Hornets would be the team that started the night with the hot hand, as Ashley Keller’s two kills propelled HWC to an early 6-2 advantage. The Bearcats responded quickly behind two kills from Elle Nicholas and another from Payton Harpestad to tie the game at seven. The game would be tied six times from that point, with the last time being late in the game. With the score locked at 18, North Star scored the final seven points of game one and ended it on an ace from Jorie Ahlberg for the 25-18 victory.
Game two was a similar game, with North Star taking the quick 4-0 lead on a kill from McKenna Wilke. Kills from Keller, Rachel Neumiller and Kayme Bartz helped the Hornets knot the game at five. The Bearcats took a three point lead midway through the game but back-to-back kills from Keller helped HWC take a 13-12 lead. Kills from Harpestad and Wilke moved North Star back to a 16-14 lead but the Hornets rallied to tie at 16. With HWC trailing 19-18, Harpestad had two more kills and with the help of some attack errors by the Hornets, outscored HWC 6-1 to claim a 25-19 victory in game two.
The final game of the night started close, as the game was tied three times before the teams reached five points. The Bearcats got a huge serving effort from Jaelyn Buckman, who stepped to the service line and promptly delivered four aces in a row and had five out of six, lifting North Star to a 12-5 lead. A host of Bearcats delivered kills from that point as North Star built a 22-10 advantage. The Hornets players gave what they could as they cut the lead to 23-15 on a Larissa Arnold ace, but Nicholas and Harpestad finished the sweep with the final two points for North Star.
Nicholas and Harpestad led the Bearcats with 12 and 10 kills, respectively while Buckman led in aces with five, all in the final game. The Hornets got five kills from Keller and two aces from Arnold to lead the team.
Region 4 Volleyball Tournament, Devils Lake
Quarterfinals
North Star 3, HWC 0
HWC 18 19 15 — 0
N. Star 25 25 25 — 3
HWC Individual Statistics
Kills: Ashley Keller 5, Rachel Neumiller 4, Larissa Arnold, Emma Dockter and Kayme Bartz 2, Kali Fike and Braylee Keller 1.
Assists: Fike 9, A. Keller and Neumiller 2, Bartz, Delaney Erfle and Ava Haldorson 1.
Aces: Arnold 2.
Digs: Dockter 18, Neumiller 14, Arnold 12, Haldorson 10, Erfle 8, Fike 7, A. Keller 3, Bartz 1.
North Star Individual Statistics
Kills: Elle Nicholas 12, Payton Harpestad 10, McKenna Wilke 7, Gianna Ahlberg 5, Jaelyn Buckman and Kaitlyn Erickstad 2.
Assists: Jorie Ahlberg 20, Buckman 13, Nicholas 7, Harpestad 2.
Aces: Buckman 5, Harpestad 2, J. Ahlberg and Deborah Clay 1.
Digs: Nicholas 18, J. Ahlberg 15, Harpestad 11, G. Ahlberg 9, Clay 7, Buckman 6, Wilke 5, Erickstad 1.
