The Minnewaska Area volleyball team is looking forward to a great season after going 13-15 overall last year and not graduating any players from that team.

The Lakers, coached by Michele Johnson, Bailey Gronner, Kari Nelson and Jacalyn Skoglund, also went 8-6 last year in the WCC to place third of eight teams.

Sauk Centre won last year’s conference race with a perfect 14-0 record, followed by BOLD (11-3), Minnewaska Area (8-6), Melrose, Morris Area-CA and West Central Area (all 7-7), Montevideo (2-12) and Benson (0-14).

Minnewaska Area, seeded sixth in its half of the Section 3AA Tourney, went on to earn upset wins over Eden Valley-Watkins and NLS in the Section 3AA Tourney before falling to Paynesville in four games for the sub-section title.  Paynesville went on to lose to Pipestone for the Section 3AA title and a berth at state.

The Lakers, who did not graduate any players, are set to open up the new season Tuesday, Aug. 29 at home against Benson followed by a match at BOLD, Thursday, Aug. 31.

Before then, the team is set to take part in a pair of scrimmages.  The Lakers are set to host a home scrimmage at 8:30 a.m., Friday, Aug. 18 and compete at the Concordia College scrimmage  at 8:30 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 26.

A look at last year

Dreya Barsness led the Lakers with 339 kills last season, while Dacia Fleury was next with 216 kills, Avery Fier had 200 and Miaya Guggisberg added 131.  Fier had a team-best 21 percent kill percentage and Barsness was next at 19 percent.

The top servers for the Lakers last year were Haillie Schultz (93.9 percent), Haley Shea (93.1 percent) and Fier (91.7 percent), while Barsness had a team-high 40 ace-serves, followed by Brooklyn Meyer with 36, Schultz with 31 and Fier and Shea with 27 aces each.

Fier also led the Lakers with 315 digs, followed by Barsness with 280, Fleury with 269 and 217 for Shea, who also led Minnewaska Area with 849 set assists out of a team total of 958.

In addition, Guggisberg led the Lakers last season with 27 blocks, with Schulz adding 20 and Fleury and Fier both putting back 18 blocks.

•  The Lakers went 1-2 during the Minnewaska Invitational, 0-4 at the Alexandria Invite, losing all four matches 2-1, and also went 2-2 at the Fergus Falls Invite for a record of 3-8 in invitationals.  Minnewaska Area was also 10-7 in best-of-five matches, including five wins in a row from Sept. 20-Oct. 6, 2022.

•  Three members of the Minnewaska Area volleyball team were named to the All-Conference team during the 2022 season.

Earning All-WCC honors were juniors Avery Fier, Dreya Barsness and Haley Shea.

Sauk Centre, BOLD and Minnewaska Area each had three All-Conference selections, while Melrose, West Central Area and Morris Area-CA all had two athletes and Benson and Montevideo both had one.

•  Earning the Best Offensive Player award was Dreya Barsness, while Avery Fier was selected for the Best Defensive Player award and Haillie Schulz earned the Most Improved Award honor.

Selected for the “Tough as Nails” Award were Haley Shea and Grace Zenk, while Shea also earned the Leadership Award (“Bringing It”).  Selected for the “Above the Line” awards (for going above and beyond with encouragement and positivity) were Barsness, Addy Kath and Grace Zenk.

Serving as captains for the 2022 season were Barsness, Fier and Shea.