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   The Hill City/Northland Storm volleyball team traveled to Bigfork for the On the Edge Tournament Saturday, Sept. 28 and ended up as the consolation champions out of eight teams.

   The Storm faced Bigfork for the first game of the day and walked away with a loss in two sets, 15-25 and 18-25, which sent them to the loss bracket in the tournament. They then faced Little Fork-Big Falls and won in three, 25-14; 20-25 and 16-14. Their third game of the day they took in three sets against Laporte, 25-17; 20-25 and 15-10. Both of their wins were redemption for last weekends games where they played both Little Fork-Big Falls and Laporte and lost to them.

   The Storm then traveled to Mountain Iron-Buhl on Tuesday, Oct. 3 and won in four sets, 18-25; 25-21; 25-13 and 25-21. 

   Head Coach Stacey Wake stated “A lot of hitting errors cost the Storm the first set against MIB. After making a few adjustments and focusing on a few key fundamentals our hitting improved going forward. It was Bella Dunham’s jump serve though that proved too much for MIB to handle.

   Stat leaders Tuesday night were Bella Dunham with 10 kills and 12 ace serves; Charity Berg with 6 kills and 9 digs; Taylor Washburn with 5 kills, 10 assists and 11 digs and Ashlyn Schwarz with 6 kills and 2 ace serves.

   On Thursday, Oct. 3 the Storm hosted Northeast Range in Hill City and fell in five sets, 23-25; 17-25; 25-20; 25-13 and 13-15. Coach Wake mentioned “going into the game I knew it was going to be a great matchup. In the end it couldn’t have been statistically closer. We had a few more service errors and they had a few more hitting errors, so it came down to who would cross that finish line first in the 5th set. I always say that volleyball matches can be a marathon but that 5th set is a sprint to the finish. We definitely have improved on not giving up even when down 2 sets, now we just have to work on closing with a stronger mindset and realize that we can beat a lot of these teams this year.”

   Stat leaders on Thursday were Taylor Washburn with 13 kills and 16 digs; Bella Dunham with 10 kills, 18 digs, 19 assists and 4 ace serves; Charity Berg with 9 kills and 13 digs; Ashlyn Schwars with 6 kills and Danika Johnson with 11 digs and 2 ace serves.

   This week the girls host Bigfork on Tuesday, Oct. 8 in Remer, with seventh grade and JV beginning at 5:45 p.m.; eighth grade at 6:45 p.m. and Varsity starting at 7 p.m. The girls will then host Chisholm on Thursday, Oct. 10 for Parent/Senior night in Hill City. Action will kick off at 5:45 p.m for  the seventh grade and JV matches; 6:45 p.m. for eighth grade and Varsity will start at 7 p.m. Action will continue on Monday, Oct. 14 as the girls head to Laporte with 7th grade and JV taking the court at 5:45 p.m.; 8th grade beginning at 6:45 p.m. and Varstiy starting at 7 p.m.

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