Honkers fly to five
Kenmare sweeps ORCS to win fifth straight district titleBy CRAIG HAUPERT, Staff Writer chaupert@minotdailynews.com
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When Kenmare junior Katie King is on the court, it is easy to get overshadowed by the intimidating 5-foot-11 middle.
But in Tuesday's District 12 championship match, another one of Kenmare's big hitters stepped into the spotlight.
Senior Dayna Froseth finished with 11 kills to go along with King's match-high 14 kills as the Honkers won their fifth straight district title with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-14) win over Our Redeemer's Christian School in Class B high school volleyball action at ORCS gymnasium.
"The Honkers have always been good at volleyball, so we take a lot of pride in being able to finish well every season," Froseth said. "I think we had a few people doubt us this year, but we are picking each other up and that is what is important to us."
If you ask Kenmare head coach Tim Wallstrum, he'll tell you Froseth has always been a key piece to the Honkers puzzle.
"Dayna, her whole career, has been like that," Wallstrum said. "She is kind of our unsung hero. All those years she started with all those good teams on the outside picking up balls all over the floor. One second she is out here, the next minutes she is by the net, then she's out to hit the ball on the same play. She is just so quick and predicts where the ball is going to be so well."
The game scores make it look like Kenmare cruised to the win, but the Knights had their chances.
Our Redeemer's was within two points of the lead at 17-15 in the first game and was tied at 18 in the second game, only to watch the Honkers find another gear.
Kenmare closed out game 1 with an 8-1 run and polished off game 2 with a 7-1 run.
"At the end of the game it is crunch time and they love that pressure, they feed off of it," Wallstrum said. "They've had it for so many years that they like the pressure at the end of the game. I think that is when they make fewer mistakes. That's where they want it and they go out and fight hard for it."
While the Honkers were at their best at the end of Tuesday's games, the Knights seemed to tighten up there, evidenced by untimely errors and questionable decision making.
"The biggest thing we deal with with the girls is when we starting making a couple mistakes, a couple errors, it is like dominos," Knights head coach Sherry Carlson said. "We are trying to break them out of that and not let that happen. Really, for us to get where we need to be, the errors have got to decrease."
Courtney Jacobsen (11 kills) and Ashley Koppiner (six kills) provided the bulk of the offense for the Knights, but could've used more help. Mataya Grigsby finished with four aces and Payton Ringoen 19 assists.
"I think what frustrated the girls most is that Kenmare got to run the show," Carlson said. "They got to run all the offense, put us on the defense continually and our defense was flat and didn't do what they needed to do to stay alive.
"When we got the offense we did put it down, but we couldn't consistently keep the offense."
Kenmare's Lexie Munson finished with 28 assists, Macie Harris had 10 digs and King three blocks.
Lewis & Clark 3,
Bishop Ryan 2
Lewis & Clark is headed to the Region 6 Tournament, but it took a monstrous effort to get there.
Megan Limke finished with 14 kills, Amanda Pipe had 13 kills and Alex Lahti added 39 assists for the Bombers, who knocked off Bishop Ryan 3-2 (24-26, 25-20, 25-23, 24-26, 15-11) in a region play-in game at the District 12 Tournament.
The win was that much sweeter for Lewis & Clark, considering three of its usual starters did not play in the tournament due to team rules violations.
"Our goal from the beginning was to go to regionals this year," Bombers head coach Brooke Storro said. "Sometimes we have stumbling blocks, some hurdles we need to get over, but we did that. The other girls that weren't playing (before) played against the varsity all year and they rose up to the level we needed them to. It was a strong finish by all the girls."
The Bombers could've wrapped it up in four games, but Bishop Ryan rallied from 24-21 down to force a fifth. There, the Bombers built 10-6 lead before finishing off the Lions with a kill by Pipe.
"They just gave a lot of effort tonight and that is exactly what we asked of them," Storro said. "It takes endurance to go five games and we finished in the end. That's what they needed to do, they gave it their all."
Katelyn Backes led Bishop Ryan with 16 kills, while Anzley Harmon had 11 kills, Maci Severson 36 assists and four aces.
Glenburn 3,
Des Lacs-Burlington 0
Krissi Lesmann finished with 12 kills, Meghan Lavachek had 31 assists and Kiah Smith added 32 digs as No. 6 Glenburn upset No. 5 Des Lacs-Burlington 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-20) in a region play-in game of the District 12 Tournament.
The win puts Glenburn in a region tournament for the first time in roughly 15 years according to head coach Brigitte Freschette.
"The girls went in with confidence and with the will to win too," Freschette said. "They gave it a lot and they played, I think, a few long rallies that they got big points in. Those rallies were big motivators for the team."
Glenburn did it with hustle, digging up shots all night and making the Lakers work hard for each and every point.
"That is the key for us all the time," Freschette said. "We really work on our passing because we don't have a huge block. We pass every day in practice no matter what because you can't rely on the block all time. But our blockers did a great job today. They had a number of touches and a few block kills."
Rachael Reiner and Brianna Johnson both finished with eight kills for the Lakers, while Deidre Karhoff had 20 assists and Brittany Holte four aces.




