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   The Hill City/Northland Storm volleyball team hosted Chisholm for their final home game of the season Thurs., Oct. 10. They ended up falling in three, 15-25; 22-25 and 8-25, to the young but talented team. Head coach Stacey Wake said “we struggled with a couple of their servers and we just couldn’t put the ball away against their fundamentally sound defense. Their hitters were very good about going around our taller middle blockers also, hitting angle shots from the middle and line shots from the outside. We don’t face a lot of hitters that can do that, but I’m very proud of our girls who always face the challenge and get excited when they finally dig one of those up or our blockers who try to read and adjust to it. As a coach, all you can ask of your players is to not shy away from adversity and to celebrate small victories.”

Nora Wake and Mariah Dahl go up for a block during the final game against Laport. Photo Submitted.

   “This game was also parents night and senior night, therefore emotions were running high. It’s not easy being a senior the first year of a co-op when you’re trying to figure things out and there are a lot of bumps along the way, but I’m proud of the example these girls have shown to our younger players coming up in our Storm program. They will be greatly missed.” mentioned Coach Wake. 

   Stat leaders for this game were: Bella Dunham with 4 kills, 4 assists, 12 digs and 1 ace serve. Taylor Washburn had 3 kills, 10 digs and 8 assists, while Charity Berg had 3 kills for the evening. Nora Wake walked away from the game with 2 kills, 2 block and 1 ace serve.

   The final regular game of the season saw the Storm travel to Laporte on Mon., Oct. 14. The Storm walked way with a win in four, 25-20; 14-25; 25-23 and 25-18. Coach Wake stated “We’ve faced each other twice earlier this season in tournaments and split the wins, so I knew it was going to be a great matchup. Our blocking forced Laporte to turn to tipping and back row hitting, so we had to adjust our defense accordingly. We also had some great serving runs by Bella Dunham and Danika Johnson and our serve receive was probably the best of the year.”

   Stat leaders at the Laport game were: Bella Dunham with 8 kills, 5 ace serves, 11 assists and 17 digs with Charity Berg coming up with 8 kills and 15 digs. Nora Wake had 6 kills and 6 blocks for the evening and Maddie Barnes had 10 perfect SR passes, 5 digs and 1 ace serve. Mariah Dahl contributed the evening with 3 kills and 3 blocks.

  In some final thoughts Coach Wake stated “Looking back over the season there were some games we could have won, and a couple we should have won, but as a coach, you know it’s about improvement and peaking at the right time for playoffs.”

   With a record of 9–14, the Storm will soon find out where that will place them in playoffs. Seeding for section 5 will be Oct. 20. Oct. 21 will be the pigtail games and first round of playoffs will begin Oct. 23. Check out the schools website at isd118.k12.mn.us or on Facebook to find out when and where the Storm will be playing.

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