Hornets improve to 11-5 overall, to host Barnesville, Sebeka this week

The Henning Hornets improved their overall record to 11-5 and their Park Region Conference record to 3-0 last week.  

After having a very busy five weeks of volleyball, the Hornets had a week off from games. 

Head coach Kristy Finck said was nice to be able to practice skills that they needed to work on and just have a few nights to catch up on some much-needed rest.  

After their week of no games, Henning traveled to Wadena-Deer Creek to play the Wolverines. The Hornets defeated WDC 3-0 (25-12. 12-13, and 25-23). 

The Hornets played the first two sets with a lot of energy. The team passed great, so they were in control of the offense. 

The third set found the Hornets playing passive. WDC started serving more aggressive, which caused the Hornets not pass as well. When Henning is not passing to target, their hitting is not what it should be and this let the Wolverines start attacking more. The Hornet were able fight through and pull off the win. 

As a team, the Hornets served 98 percent with six aces. They had 42 kills, hitting at .166, and 6 blocks on the night. Henning’s serve receive to target was 86 percent and digging was 63 percent.

Leading the way for the Hornets was Grace Hammer and Emma Severson as they had 11 and 9 kills. Ally Hart had seven kills and led the team in digs with 22.  

Lyvia Misegades also had seven kills, and led the team with 33 assists and 3 blocks. Lily Fraki had four kills and Gretchen Eckhoff had three. Aaliyah Olson had 12 digs, Faith Fisher led the team with two aces serves and she had 11 digs on the night. 

On Friday, the Hornets departed school early to head down to Burnsville to take part in the Showcase Volleyball Tournament. This is a very tough tournament as all of the teams are top ranked in the state. The competition is strong and each game is very intense and take a lot of energy and mental toughness.  

There were four pools with four teams in each. The Hornets found themselves with the number one team in the state, Mayor Lutheran, MACCRAY and Lake of the Woods.  The first game Henning played Lake of the Woods.  The Hornets defeated them 2-0 (25-11, 25-17).  

In Henning’s next game they faced MACCRAY. This was a back and forth match as the Hornets won the first game 25-21, then lost 23-25. The final set was a thriller, with the Hornets winning 17-15.  In the final set, the Hornets found themselves down 14-10. 

Lyvia Misegades came to the serving line and with some great volleys and a few errors from MACCRAY the score was tied at 14-14. MACCRAY got the ball back and the score was 14-15, but they missed a crucial serve and that brought Ally Hart to the line at 15-15. Again, there was a great volley and the Hornets won the point.  

MACCRAY took their last time out to try to break the serve, but when Hart served, she served an ace winning the game 17-15.  This was pure excitement as Finck said it was great for the girls to see that you never quit. That was the end of pool play for the night; their next pool play game was 9 a.m. Saturday morning against Mayor Lutheran.

Mayor Lutheran proved why they are top ranked team in the state. They are a very well rounded team; they controlled the game from start to finish.  Their offense was fast and the Hornets could not get a block up, so their defense really struggled. Scores of the games were 14-25 and 14-25. 

With this loss, the Hornets placed second in pool play. This put them in the silver playoff bracket, along with Mable Canton, Legacy Christian and Bethlehem Academy.  The Hornets first game was against Mable Canton.  

The Hornets came out strong in the first set as they controlled the offense the whole time. Mable Canton struggled until the last few points of the set and then they started finding holes.  

The second set saw Mable Canton keeping the ball alive and forcing the Hornets to make errors. They are a team that is defensive sound and find holes of their opponent.  This is what they did the remaining game and the Hornets could not put the ball down. Scores of the games were 25-18, 15-25 and 9-15.  

With this loss, the Hornets faced Bethlehem Academy.  The Hornets did not play their greatest in this match as they just could not get any momentum going.  The Hornets played with little energy and were just too passive. 

Finck said it was tough ending on a loss, but this is a great tournament to play in. She said the team gained a lot of experience and learned things they need to work on. 

Ally Hart led the Hornets as she had 40 kills, served 37/38 with 4 aces and had 50 digs.  Faith Fisher had a great tournament as she served 46/46 with 4 aces and led the team with 66 digs. Gretchen Eckhoff served 45/45 with 2 aces and 55 digs. Lyvia Misegades served 40/40 with 2 aces, had 17 kills and had 88 assists.  Grace Hammer had 31 kills and 2 ace blocks.  Becca Frederick and Emma Severson had 9 and 11 kills apiece, along with 3 solo blocks each. Also seeing court time in the tournament were Aaliyah Olson with 22 digs, Lily Fraki with 4 kills and 2 blocks and Natalie Eckhoff with 3 assists.

The Hornets next game is Tuesday, Sept. 28 against Barnsville and Thursday, Sept. 30 against Sebeka. Both games are at home.