Henning goes 3-3 at Class A Showcase

Photos by Dani Koenen
Lilly Fraki and Myeisha Antoni attempt to block a Menahga hitter during last week’s Park Region Conference game against the Braves in Henning. 

The Henning Hornets had a busy week as they had two regular season matches and then participated in the two day Class A Showcase volleyball tournament in Burnsville.  The Hornets are now 12-3 overall and 3-0 in the Park Region Conference.

On Tuesday, the Hornets traveled to Evansville to take on the Brandon-Evansville Chargers. The Hornets defeated B-E 3-0 (25-17, 25-18 and 25-20). 

Faith Fisher passes the ball to the front row during last week’s game against the Braves. 

On Thursday night we hosted Park Region opponent the Menahga Braves, the Hornets defeated the Braves 3-0 (25-13, 25-19, and 25-15). Then on Friday, the Hornets loaded the bus and head for Burnsville. The tournament consisted of 16 top ranked teams on Class A. All teams were seeded, then placed into pools of four teams. The Hornets played against two of their three pool play opponents on Friday night and then on Saturday morning they played the third opponent. After pool play, teams were placed in a four-team bracket, depending on how teams placed in their pool. 

The Hornets first opponent was Bethlehem Academy. Henning played right with B-A, but made too many serving and hitting errors. In the two sets, Henning missed 8 serves and had 14 hitting errors. Against teams of this caliber, errors have to be minimal.  

Members of the Henning volleyball team display some of the signs that were used by fans during their Park Region Conference game against Menahga on Thursday night. 

The Hornets lost in two games, 19-25 and 24-26. The next opponent was Mable-Canton. In game one, the Hornets defeated themselves from the start. It was a game of error after error and Henning could not get anything going. M-C just kept the ball alive and made Henning make the error.  The score at the end of the game was 13-25. 

Becca Frederick tips the ball over the net during last week’s game in Henning. Bottom right: Ally Hart sends a shot past a pair of blockers last week. 

In game two, the Hornets played the type of volleyball that they know how to play. Henning passed and attacked the ball well, but just came up short in the end. Game score was 23-25. 

After this game, the Hornets played their type of volleyball. They defeated Canby, who was the third pool play opponent 2-1 (23-25, 25-17 and 15-11). At the conclusion of the pool play, B-A was 3-0, and M-C, Canby and Henning were all 1-2. They did a tie break system and M-C was second, Canby was third and Henning ended up fourth.

Henning’s next opponent was Legacy Christian. The Hornets defeated Legacy Christian 2-1 (25-16, 22-25 and 15-13). With this win, Henning’s next opponent was against Heron Lake Okabena-Fulda. They are a very well rounded team, and their offense was very tough. 

The Hornets struggled right away, but once they started blocking and figuring out where the hitters hit, they started playing right with HLO-F. It was a game of long volleys and good solid hitting. Head coach Kristy Finck said she feels like the Hornets competed well against them. She said playing teams like this caliber only make the team better, and at this tournament all five matches were good for for team. The Hornets ended up losing our last match 0-2 (22-25 and 23-25).

Becca Frederick tips the ball over the net during last week’s game in Henning. Bottom right: Ally Hart sends a shot past a pair of blockers last week. 

Finck said she honestly feels like the Hornets competed tough at the tournament. They made a change in their line up and the girls responded and competed tough. The only thing Henning really needs to work on is generating more kills. Finck said the Hornets get the ball in the court, but then they are on defense too much.  She said the team needs to generate more first ball side outs. The Hornets are improving on our blocking each game, but that too needs to get better. Finally, just playing with intensity from start to finish. Finck said Henning needs to focus on each point of the game, no matter the score.

At the showcase tournament the Hornets served 94 percent with 16 aces. Ally Hart served 100 percent with 3 aces. The team had 111 kills, hitting at .100. 

Hart led the team with 36, Becca Frederick had 26, Lyvia Misegades had 21 and Gretchen Eckhoff had 15. Henning’s blocking is getting better, as a team the Hornets had 26 solo blocks. Frederick and Myeisha Antoni both had 8 and Misegades had 6. 

Henning served received 88 percent to target. Hart and Faith Fisher led the team in this category. In digging, Fisher had 99, Hart had 73 and Gretchen Eckhoff had 63.

This week the Hornets travel to Barnsville on Tuesday and host Wadena-Deer Creek on Thursday.