With their two matches last week, the Henning Hornets volleyball team improved their overall record to 20-7 and their Park Region Conference record to 6-1. 

On Tuesday, the Hornets traveled to Sebeka. Going into the match the Hornets knew the Trojans were a very talented and scrappy team and needed to win the game to be the stand alone team to finish in second place in the Park Region Conference. Should the Hornets win, and if Verndale upset Wadena-Deer Creek, they would tie for first place. The Hornets defeated Sebeka 3-1 and Wadena-Deer Creek defeated Verndale, so WDC (7-0) became PRC champions for the fourth year in a row and the Hornets (6-1) took second place for the second year in a row. Pillager (5-2) took third, Sebeka (4-3) was fourth, Menahga (3-4) fifth, Bertha-Hewitt (2-5) sixth, Pillager (1-6) seventh and New York Mills (0-6) was eighth.

The game against Sebeka was a very competitive game, both teams came out serving aggressively and tried to be in control of the offense. The first set was back and forth until 15-15 and then the Hornets started attacking more and gained momentum in their offensive. 

Henning’s passing got better so Alivia Emter was able to use all of the attackers. Addison Bode settled in and started finding the holes in Sebeka’s defense, and the Hornets went on to win 25-17. Set two was much like set one, but the Trojans executed on Henning’s mistakes and were able to take the set 25-27. 

The third set the Hornets were in control more and caused the Trojans to make more mistakes, Henning won set 3, 25-16. In set 4 the Hornets came out in full force and had a nice lead, but the Trojans did not back down. The Hornets were up 21-16 and the Trojans got the ball back. They served extremely aggressive, and got a few blocks and fought back to 20. 

The Hornets regrouped and finished the game 25-21. 

Leading the night for the Hornets was Addison Bode with 23 kills and 19 digs. Lily Grieger and Bella Olson each had 8 kills and Brynn Reinbold added 7. Haley Hanson led the team with 3 solo and 3 assist blocks. Hailey Fiskum led the team in digs with 31. Abbigale Godding led the team in ace serves with 3 and Alivia Emter dished out 44 set assists. Zoey Gruber did a nice job serving as she was 16/16 with 1 ace.

On Thursday night the Hornets hosted the top seed in Section 6A, the Underwood Rockets. They had their fans on their feet, the Henning gymnasium was electric. 

Head coach Kristy Finck said it was some of the best volleyball she have seen in a long time. There were long volleys, great hitting and digging and amazing blocking. The Hornets attacked the ball from beginning to end. The Hornets defeated the Rockets in 3 straight sets 25-23, 25-17 and 25-18.

In three sets Henning had 46 kills. As a team we served 74/76 with 2 aces, and serve-received 94 percent to the target. The Hornets had 2 girls with double digit kills, Addison Bode 19, and Brynn Reinbold with 12. Lily Grieger had 7 kills, Bella Olson had 5 and Haley Hanson added 2. Alivia Emter had 40 set assists and 2 solo blocks on the night. Hailey Fiskum served 26/26 and had 26 serve receives and 17 digs. Abbigale Godding served 17/17 with 2 aces. 

Finck said if Henning can play with the energy and attack the ball like we did in their match against Underwood, she feels like they are going to be very successful in the Section 6A tournament. She said the Hornets need to play one match at a time, play with confidence and just go out and have fun playing the game of volleyball. 

The Hornets were seeded fifth in the section and will have a first round home match against 12th seeded Battle Lake on Wednesday, Oct. 28. If the Hornets win they will likely travel to Moorehead to take on fourth seeded Park Christian on Friday night.