Henning falls to Breckenridge 3-1 at home

Freshman Addison Bode sends a spike past a Breckenridge blocker on Tuesday night.

The Henning Hornets had a busy first week back to school, as they hosted two games and participated in the Browerville Tournament on Saturday. 

Head coach Kristy Finck said the Hornets it was great to finally have a home game as the team has been doing a lot of traveling the past four weeks, it sure helped the busy week not seem as long.

Brynn Reinbold attempts to block a shot during Tuesday’s game in Henning.

On Tuesday, the Hornets hosted the very talented Breckenridge Cowgirls. After starting off slow in the first set, the Hornets regrouped and played better throughout the next three sets. In the second set the Hornets caught the Cowgirls off guard and were able to get the win. In this set, Finck said the Hornets served aggressively, and were able to be more in control of the offense with their attacking. 

In sets three and four the Cowgirls got back their momentum and were able control the game as they wanted. Finck said he was pleased with how the Hornets regrouped after the first set as they did not quit and they improved as the night went on. 

Alivia Emter tips the ball past a pair of Breckenridge blockers during Tueaday’s non-conference game in Henning. 

The Hornets were led by Bella Olson with 10 kills, Addison Bode had 9 and Myiesha Antoni had 7. Abbigale Godding made her varsity debut and led the team in assists with 15 and Alivia Emter finished with 13. 

Lillian Moench led the team with 23 digs and Bode dug up 17. Antoni led the team with 4 blocks, Emmalyn Bergstrom had 3 and Brynn Reinbold had 2. Cambrie Johnson had a good night at the serving line, she was 11/11 with two aces.

On Thursday night the Hornets hosted the Verndale Pirates. The Pirates are rebuilding after graduating the majority of their players last year. Both teams came into the night 0-1 in the Park Region Conference and were looking to pick up a conference win. 

The Hornets came out with a lot of energy and controlled the game from start to finish. As a team they served 96 percent with 8 aces, had 41 kills, hitting at .142 and their receive passing was at 85 percent to target.

The Hornets were led by Myiesha Antoni with 11 kills. Addison Bode had 8 kills and Emmalyn Bergstrom and Brynn Reinbold each had 6. Abbigale Godding had 4 ace serves and 13 set assists. Alivia Emter led the team in assists with 22 and served 100 percent with 2 aces. Cambrie Johnson led the team in defensive digs with 19 and she serve received 95 percent to the target.

On Saturday the Hornets traveled to Long Prairie for the Browerville Tournament. This year a team had to drop out and there were only seven teams, so it was decided that a round robin tournament would be played. The day was long, but the Hornets improved a lot. 

Finck said she felt Henning’s passing has really improved, and their overall hitting is getting better. The girls just have to learn to realize if it is a set to pound or a set where they should just find a hole to put the ball in. If they can cut back on their hitting errors and let the other team make the mistakes they are going to improve their game so much. 

Finck said one other thing Henning needs to keep working on is to keep their emotions in check. Volleyball is a game of mistakes, and the Hornets cannot let it show when a mistake is made. She said the team improved on that a lot during the tournament. 

On the day, the Hornets lost to Browerville and New York Mills.  The Hornets split games with CGB, Long Prairie, Bertha-Hewitt and defeated Brandon-Evansville. The tournament was scored using a 3, 2, 1, 0 criteria. 

If a team won both sets they received 3 points, if there was a split in games they either scored a 2 or 1, depending on point difference. At the end of the day the Hornets had 8 points and tied for fourth place with CGB.

Leading the Hornets was Myiesha Antoni with 30 kills, Emmalyn Bergstrom had 25 and Addison Bode had 20. Alivia Emter led the team in serving as she was 37/37 along with 5 aces. She also led the team with 53 set assists, while Abbigale Godding had 46 assists. 

Lillian Moench led the team with 63 digs and Addison Bode had 53. Cambrie Johnson had a great day serve receiving as she passed 96 percent to target. Leading in blocking was Antoni and Bergstrom, they each had 4 solo blocks.

The Hornets have another busy week coming up. On Tuesday they travel to Sebeka for a rescheduled game and on Friday they travel to Bertha-Hewitt for an afternoon game at 1 p.m. On Saturday the Hornets will participate in the Parkers Prairie Tournament.