'Battle of the Friends,' goes to Hayley

Flash back to 2006.

Hayley (Hennen) Fruin was the setter for the State Champion Minneota Vikings volleyball team.

Just a freshman, Leah Fadness was also on the only team that's won a volleyball state championship for Minneota.

Now ... fast forward to 2018 ... 12 years later — and the two are still on the same court. Only now, they're coaching their respective teams at Minneota and Yellow Medicine East (Granite Falls).

Thursday night Minneota Vikings beat Yellow Medicine East, 25-20; 25-14 and 24-21, but not without a tough struggle from The Sting.

"Leah is always going to be ready. She knows us well. In fact, he knows us as well as we know ourselves," said Fruin.

"Mostly we respect each other. When we paly each other, we leave it on the court," said the Minneota coach, who brought her hometown back to the state and a second place finish last year.

"I know they will always be competitive," said Fadness. "We defended well tonight. It was super reqarding to see things come together," she said.

Coming into the match The Sting was 1-2, but after losing two of the sets by close scores of 25-20 and 24-21, "Our girls were proud of themselves tonight," Fadness said.

Yellow Medicine East led in the third set, 20-16 and had their sights set on handing Minneota its first set loss of the year.

But the Vikings rallied behind Abby Hennen's serving. Lydia Sussner led the way at the net and Hennen served four straight points. Sussner blocked Meeghen Dalager, then slammed it back over the net for the lead at 21-20. She two-handed a hit for a point and Lizzy Gillingham put the cap on the night with a kill for the win, 25-21.

"We wanted that set," said Fadness. But she realized her team had, "fought the good fight."

Coach Fruin didn't think her team played as well defensively as they have been. But she added, "They (The Sting) were picking up our hits on the other side of the court."

In fact, the two teams had several nice "vollies" that entertained the fans.

But she was thrilled with the comeback to win the third game. "It's nice to when your down, enough confidence to come back," the coach said.

Minneota ran its record to 4-0 on the season.

They play at the Molten Southwest Minnesota Challenge Friday and Saturday in Marshall. Their first game is at 6:15 p.m. and they play Perham. The second game follows. Both are at SMSU in Marshall.

Statistiscs were:

KILLS: Lydia Sussner 14; Natalee Rolbiecki 11; Lizzy Gillingham 8.

SET ASSISTS: Morgan Kockelman 37.

SERVING: Abby Hennen 12-12-0; Morgan Hennen 18-19-1; Ellie Pesch 14-1`4-0.

DIGS: Abby Hennen 13; Lizzy Gillingham 12; Morgan Hennen 16.

BLOCKS: Lydia Sussner 4; Abby Hennen 2, Natalee Rolbiecki 1, Lizzy Gillingham 1.