Vikings 3rd at Showcase tourney

Minneota finished third in the Class A Showcase tournament this past weekend at the Midwest Volleyball Warehouse in Burnsville.
Minneota (15-2) won four of five matches. After sweeping Spring Grove, Floodwood and Badger-Greenbush/Middle River in pool play, the Vikings lost to Camden Conference nemesis Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in three sets in the semifinals. The Vikings then rebounded swept Bethlehem Academy for third place.
"When we can pass, we are really tough to defend," said coach Hayley Fruin. "We struggled at times with our serve receive and we can't get our offense going when this is the case. We found a few areas we need to improve on from this tournament and we will get better and really focus on those key areas."
Minneota will get a chance to avenge the loss to RTR when they meet again on Oct. 11 in Tyler.
Senior setter Ireland Stassen was named to the all-tournament team after finishing with 27 kills, 69 assists, 15 digs, seven blocks and six aces.
Sophomore rightside hitter Elivia Faris led the Vikings with 38 kills in the five matches. Ella Johnson had 23 kills, seven aces and four blocks. Emma Bottelberghe had 12 kills and three blocks, Megan Krog 10 kills and four blocks, and Kenadi Arndt seven kills and a team-high 10 blocks.
"Elivia had a great weekend at the net, especially our last two matches on Saturday," Fruin said. "We have a lot of kids that haven't played in these big games so it was nice to see how we responded after losing a tough match to make it to the championship. It is only making us mentally tougher and better volleyball players."
Lyzah Sussner amassed 28 digs and four ace serves. Nevaeh Hennen amassed 25 assists and nine digs, Grace Hennen had 10 digs and three aces, and Dakoda Hennen had five aces.
"We will keep improving each day and getting better as a team," said Fruin. "We still have a lot of the season left and we are going to continue to put in the work."

MINNEOTA SCORES
(Pool play)
Minneota def. Spring Grove 25-22, 25-22
Minneota def. Floodwood 25-13, 25-14
Minneota def. Badger-Greenbush/Middle River 25-14, 25-17
(Semifinals)
Russell-Tylr-Ruthton def. Minneota 25-20, 15-25, 15-12
(Third place)
Minneota def. Bethlehem Academy 25-19, 26-24

MINNEOTA STATISTICS
Serving (aces): Lyzah Sussner 32-33-4, Ireland Stassen 40-40-6, Dakoda Hennen 37-39-5, Ella Johnson 39-41-7, Abby Rolbiecki 31-31-1, Grace Hennen 39-40-3

Setting (assists): Ireland Stassen 69, Nevaeh Hennen 25

Kills: Elivia Faris 38, Ireland Stassen 27, Ella Johnson 23, Emma Bottelberghe 12, Megan Krog 10, Kenadi Arndt 7

Blocks (aces): Kenadi Arndt 10, Ireland Stassen 7, Megan Krog 4, Ella Johnson 4, Emma Bottlberghe 3

Digs: Lyzah Sussner 28, Ireland Stassen 15, Grace Hennen 10, Nevaeh Hennen 9, Abby Rolbiecki 5, Emma Bottelberghe 4, Ella Johnson 4, Elivia Faris 3, Dakoda Hennen 2

Minneota 3, CMCS 0
(Result Tuesday, Sept. 27)
The Vikings notched 13 ace serves while allowing the Bluejays to finish with just one. Ireland Staasen had five of those aces, while Lyzah Sussner and Dakoda Hennen had three each.
Stassen also had 12 kills, 19 assists and 10 digs. Ella Johnson and Elivia Faris had seven kills each. Abby Rolbiecki had 13 digs and Nevaeh Hennen had 14 assists.
The Vikings (6-0 in the Camden Conference, 16-2 overall), ranked No. 3 in Class A, got things rolling after being locked in a 3-3 tie in the first set, scoring the next six points for a 9-3 advantage. That run included a pair of kills by Stassen, a kill by Kenadi Arndt and an ace serve by Ella Johnson. At 20-16, Minneota scored five unanswered points to take the first set 25-16. A kill by Elivia Faris capped the set.
In set two, the Vikings held an 11-8 lead before scoring nine unanswered points with Stassen at the service stripe. During that stretch, Stassen aced three of her serves, while Emma Bottelberghe and Megan Krog had kills.
Leading 20-9 in that second set, Lyzah Sussner served the final five points, including the final three points on ace serves.
Set three stayed relatively close until the Vikings pulled away from a 9-8 lead with five straight points, two on aces by Stassen.
Still leading 21-13, the Vikings closed out the sweep with Ella Johnson serving on three straight CMCS errors and a Stassen kill.
The Vikings play at home against Canby on Thursday, Sept. 29.

MINNEOTA 3, CMCS 0
Minneota......................................................25 25 25
CMCS...........................................................16 9 13

MINNEOTA STATISTICS
Serving (aces): Lyzah Sussner 8-8-3, Ireland Stassen 18-9-5, Dakoda Hennen 11-12-3, Ella Johnson 12-12-1, Abby Rolbiecki 12-12-0, Lyssa Kremin 9-10-1

Setting (assists): Ireland Stassen 19, Nevaeh Hennen 14

Kills: Ireland Stassen 12, Ella Johnson 7, Elivia Faris 7, Megan Krog 4, Emma Bottelberghe 4, Kenadi Arndt 2

Blocks (aces): Kenadi Arndt 2, Megan Krog 1, Emma Bottelberghe 1

Digs: Lyzah Sussner 15, Abby Rolbiecki 13, Ireland Stassen 10, Nevaeh Hennen 5, Emma Bottelberghe 4, Ella Johnson 3, Dakoda Hennen 2, Elivia Faris 1, Lyssa Kremin 1