The Henning Hornets saw success on the court last week.  They started the week with an away game to Breckenridge to take on a very well rounded team with a lot of experience. With Breckenridge being very big at the net the Hornets decided to try a bigger line up to try and stop their “bigs” from getting kills and ace blocks.

“I was pleased with how we played, but our offense did not flow as smoothly without our main setter, Cambrie Johnson setting the whole game,” said head coach Kristy Finck. “Lily Greiger and Alivia Emter did a really nice job when Cambrie wasn’t on the floor, but her leadership and court awareness was missed.”  

The Hornets started strong in the first set, but the Cowgirls started playing better and dominated the end of the game (17-25). Game two the Hornets fought hard and led the whole game until point 22 and Henning was not able to pull off the win, the score at the end was 22-25.  Game three was another battle and the Hornets were able to pull off the win, 28-26.  In game four Breckenridge passed the ball well and was able to control the game from start to finish, the score ended at 15-25. 

As a team, the Hornets had 38 kills, hitting at a low .093, they served 94 percent with five ace serves, serve receive was at 91 percent efficiency and they had 11 ace blocks on the night.  

Alivia Emter led the team with 12 kills, 8 set assists and 23 digs. Myiesha Anotoni had 9 kills and 6 blocks. Addison Bode had 8 kills and 23 digs. Cambrie Johnson led the team in set assists with 16 and Haily Fiskum led in digs with 26.

The Hornets only had the Tuesday game against Breckenridge and were off until Saturday when they traveled to Long Prairie to play in the Browerville Tournament. The Hornets had a great day of volleyball as they went 4-0 on the day and came home as the 2025 Browerville Invitational Champions.  

They opened up their first match against Browerville and won 2-0 (25-14, 25-16). The next game was against Verndale. The Pirates returned everyone from their last year’s rosters and showed a lot of improvement.  The Hornets played well and were able to get a 2-0 win (26-24, 25-16). 

In the third pool play match Henning faced a very talented Clinton-Graceville team. The game was back and forth from start to finish, Henning won the first set 25-21, they won the second 21-25 and the third set ended 16-14 in favor of the Hornets. With this win the Hornets won their pool and faced Bertha-Hewitt who won their Pool going 3-0. 

The championship match was a fun match to watch, there were some long volleys, good blocking and some great attacks.  The Hornets were able to defeat the Bears 2-0 (25-20, 25-20). 

Finck said it was fun to see the girls compete today. She said she saw a lot of improvement from the start of the day. 

“I feel our communication became stronger, our passing was getting better and we had some really great attacks on the day,” she said. 

On the day we had 105 kills, hitting at .149 efficiency, Henning’s serve receive was 95 percent to the target, Henning served at 96 percent with 18 aces, and had 15 blocks on the day.  

Kills leaders were Myiesha Antoni with 29 and Addison Bode with 28. Alivia Emter and Emmalyn Bergstrom each had 16 and Brynn Reinbold had 11. Bergstrom led the team in ace serves with 5. Cambrie Johnson led the team in set assists with 88, she also had 3 ace serves. Emter led the team in digs with 47 and Antoni led the team with 9 blocks on the day. Bella Olson, Hailey Fiskum and Lillian Moench did a nice job on defense and also serve-receiving the ball to the setter, which helped with our success on the day.

The Hornets are off now until Thursday when they travel to Verndale for a Park Region Conference game.