Viking girls win Silver Championship at Southwest Challenge

Minneota was just rollin’ along, ranked first in the state, when suddenly they lost a close, 2-1 match to BOLD at the Southwest Challenge in Burnsville.
They fought back to win four straight and take the Silver Championship at the Midwest Volleyball Warehouse.
During the week they also beat Dawson-Boyd, 3-0 and Lakeview, 3-0 but dropped to  third place in the state rankings.

After dropping their opening game to BOLD, 2-1 in the Southwest Showcase in Burnsville Friday, Minneota came all the way back to win four straight and capture the “Silver” Championship with a 2-0 win over Kenyon-Wanamingo.

MINNEOTA dropped its first volleyball game at the Midwest Volleyball Warehouse in Burnsville Friday night.
After dropping a 25-23 nail-bitter to BOLD, the Vikings came back for a 25-19 win over the Warriors. The two teams got wrapped up in another “down to the finish” fiasco with BOLD winning, 16-14.
“This was a learning point for everyone, “Coach Hayley Fruin said about the loss to BOLD. “We learned we can never look past our opponents,” the coach said.
It was only Minneota’s second loss of the year in 13 matches.
The Vikings bounced back to beat Bethlehem Academy, 25-12 and 25-12 to split the first day’s matches.
“We knew we needed to fire up and play our style of ball,” said the coach.

ON SATURDAY, Minneota defeated Russell-Tyer-Ruthton 2-0 by scores of 25-10; 25-19.
That pitted them against Fosston and Minneota came out a 2-0 winner, 25-14 and 25-11 and put them into the championship game against Kenyon-Wanamingo, which Minneota won, 25-16 and25-23.
During the weekend, Natalee Rolbiecki led the team with 54 kills with Abby Hennen knocking down 49 for points with Abby Frie collecting 21 kills and Morgan Hennen 18
 The team had the back row pretty well covered with Rolbiecki again the leader with 52 digs followed by Morgan Hennen with 47 and Abby Hennen with 42.
For the weekend, Ireland Stassen collected 89 sets that went for points and McKenna Yost set 54 that ended up scoring points.
“We learned if your game isn’t working we’ve got to look for somebody else,” Coach Fruin added.
They found “somebody else” and salvaged the rest of the tournament. In so doing, Abby Hennen was named to the All-Tournament Team.
Digs: Abby Hennen 42, Natalee Rolbiecki 52, Morgan Hennen 47.
Kills: Natalee Rolbiecki 54, Abby Hennen 49, Abby Frie 21, Morgan Hennen 18.
Set Assists Ireland Stassen 89, McKenna Yost 54.