The Minnewaska Area volleyball team closed out the regular-season, Thursday at the Fergus Falls Tourney.  The Lakers went 3-2 at the tourney to improve to 15-12 overall heading into this week’s Section 6AA Volleyball Tourney.

Earlier in the week, the Lakers ended the conference schedule with a three-game sweep of Morris Area to finish 7-7 in the WCC.  Sauk Centre won this year’s conference title with a 13-1 record, followed by BOLD (11-3), West Central Area and Melrose Area (both 9-5), Minnewaska Area (7-7), Morris Area-CA (5-9), Montevideo (1-13) and Benson (1-13).

In the Section 6AA seedings, the Lakers were seeded 10th of 14 teams and are set to play at seventh-seeded  Foley (14-9) at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 26.

With a win, the Lakers would play at second-seeded Pequot Lakes, Tuesday, Oct. 31 in the quarterfinals.  The tourney continues Nov. 2 and 4.

Seniors set to play in their final volleyball postseason are Avery Fier, Haley Shea, Dreya Barsness, Brooklyn Meyer and Miaya Guggisberg.

Waska 3, Morris Area 0

The Lakers ended the WCC schedule with a 25-15, 25-22, 25-17 victory over Morris Area-CA last Tuesday night at home.Minnewaska Area played a great match, ending the contest with a kill percentage of 38 percent.

Avery Fier, Dreya Barsness and Dacia Fleury led the offense with a combined 37 kills, while Haley Shea and Haillie Schulz played their normal great all-around matches to also key the win.

Barsness ended the match with 14 kills and only one error, wile Fier had 12 kills with two errors and Fleury added 11 more kills and only two errors.

Schulz chipped in with three kills, 17 set assists and two ace-serves, while Shea was 8-of-9 serving, had 20 set assists and nine digs.

The Lakers were 64-of-71 serving for the match with five aces.  Top servers were Barsness (16-17-1), Emma Poegel (12-12-0) and Fier (9-10-1).  On defense, Fier had a team-high 11 digs with Shea adding nine and Poegel seven, and Miaya Guggisberg led the Lakers with 1.5 blocks.

Fergus Falls Tourney

The Lakers went 3-2 at the Fergus Falls Tourney, Thursday, beating Park Rapids (20-25, 25-17, 15-10), Walker-H-A (25-19, 25-20) and Fergus Falls (25-23, 25-15), while also losing to Sauk Centre (25-14, 25-22) and Hawley (22-25, 19-25).

During the win over Walker-HA, Avery Fier had six kills and nine digs, while Dreya Barsness had five kills, 10 digs and two ace-serves, Haley Shea was 8-for-8 serving with 12 set assists and Miaya Guggisberg had a team-high 1.5 blocks.

In the win over Park Rapids, Barsness and Fier had monster matches with 10 and 8 kills, respectively.  Haillie Schulz was 14-for-15 serving with three aces, Shea was 10-for-10 serving with two aces and also had 17 set assists, Fier had two blocks and Barsness had a team-best 11 digs.

It was an overall great team effort during the win over Fergus Falls as Barsness had six kills, Schulz had five and Dacia Fleury added three.  Brooklyn Noyes was the top server, going 13-for-13 with two aces, while Emma Poegel had a team-high eight digs and Guggisberg had 1.5 blocks.

After winning their pool with a 3-0 record, the Lakers fell to Sauk Centre in the semifinals as Minnewaska had a match kill percentage of just six percent.  Barsness had 11 kills and a block, while Shea had 11 set assists, Schulz was 10-for-10 serving with an ace, Fier was the only Laker in double digit digs with 24, Barsness and Shea had one block each, and Fier, Fleury and Schulz added three kills each.

The Lakers played a great match against Hawley for third place, but still lost in two.  Barsness led the Lakers with eight kills and eight digs, while Schulz had four kills, Poegel was 9-of-10 serving with an ace and also saved eight digs, Schulz had a team-high nine set assists, and Barsness and Schulz had the lone blocks for Minnewaska.

at Waska 3, Morris Area 0

Morris Area 15 22 17

Minnewaska (12-10) 25 25 25

WASKA STATS  (good-attempts-aces):  Serving:  Dreya Barsness 16-17-1, Emma Poegel 12-12-0, Haillie Schulz 10-12-2, Avery Fier 9-10-1, Haley Shea 8-9-0, Brooklyn Meyer 5-7-1, Brooklyn Noyes 4-4-0. . . Set assists:  Shea 20, Schulz 7

Hitting:  Barsness 26-27-14, Fier 14-16-12, Dacia Fleury 21-23-11, Schulz 8-11-3, Miaya Guggisberg 7-7-2, Addy Kath 2-3-0, Shea 1-1-0 . . . Digs:  Fier 11, Shea 9, Poegel 7, Meyer 4, Barsness 4, Fleury 2, Schulz 2, Guggisberg 2, Kath 1 . . . Blocks (aces):  Guggisberg 1.5, Shea .5, Schulz .5, Fleury .5, Fier .5

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