The Minnewaska Area volleyball team opened up the season with a three-game sweep of Benson last Tuesday night, 25-17, 25-11, 25-17.  The Lakers were 13-15 overall last year and didn’t graduate any players from last year.

The Lakers also played at BOLD, Thursday, losing 3-2, but results from that match were not in time for the early Labor Day deadline.  

This week, Minnewaska Area has a very busy week with two home matches against Montevideo, Tuesday, and West Central Area, Thursday, before competing in the Lakeview Tournament, Saturday.

•  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 Area, Morris Area-CA and West Central Area (all 7-7), Montevideo (2-12) and Benson (0-14).

Minnewaska 3, Benson 0

The Lakers opened up the season with a 25-17, 25-11, 25-17 win over the visiting Benson Braves last Tuesday night. Dreya Barsness and Dacia Fleury were the main offensive weapons for the Lakers, but it was definitely a team effort for Minnewaska Area, which was never threatened all match.

Ten players saw action during the first match, including four seniors, two juniors, one sophomore and three ninth-graders.

Barsness led the Lakers with 13 kills, seven digs and two ace-serves, while Fleury had 11 kills, four digs and one block while registering a 36.4 kill percentage.

The Lakers won game one easily, building leads of 13-8, 19-11 and 22-14 before settling for the 25-17 win.

Emma Poegel, who was 19-for-20 serving with three aces, had 9-straight service points in the second game, helping Waska increase a 15-10 lead to 24-10 on the way to the 25-11 victory.

Fleury, who got better as the match went on, had several booming kills in game three as Minnewaska took an early 14-4 lead and held on for the 25-17 victory.

Together, Fleury and Barsness had 24 kills with only eight errors on 52 spike attempts for a 30 percent kill percentage.

The Lakers served at an 89 percent clip with Poegel, Haillie Schulz (16-for-19 with two aces), Haley Shea (9-for-9 with an ace) and Avery Fier (7-for-7 with an ace) leading the way.

Schulz also had 21 set assists and eight kills with only one error on 20 attempts, while Fier had five kills and 1.5 blocks and Addy Kath added two kills.

Barsness also led the Lakers with seven digs, followed by Schulz with six, Fier with five, and Brooklyn Meyer, Fleury and Poegel with four each, while Shea had 12 set assists.

at Minnewaska 3, Benson 0

Benson (0-1) 17 11 17

Minnewaska (1-0) 25 25 25

WASKA STATS  (good-attempts-aces):  Serving:  Emma Poegel 19-20-3, Haillie Schulz 16-19-2, Dreya Barsness 9-11-2, Haley Shea 9-9-1, Avery Fier 7-7-1, Brooklyn Meyer 4-4-0, Brooklyn Noyes 2-4-2 . . . Set assists:  Schulz 21, Shea 12, Fier 2, Barsness 1

Hitting:  Barsness 25-30-13, Dacia Fleury 19-22-11, Schulz 19-20-8, Fier 10-12-5, Addy Kath 6-9-2, Emma Hellermann 1-2-0, Poegel 0-1-0, Shea 1-1-0. . . Digs:  Barsness 7, Schulz 6, Fier 5, Meyer 4, Fleury 4, Poegel 4, Shea 3, Kath 1, Hellermann 1. . . Blocks:  Fier 1.5, Fleury .5

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