The Minnewaska Area volleyball team had another great season in 2023, going 16-13 overall and 7-7 in the WCC.

The Lakers, who were seeded 10th in the Section 6AA Tourney, had their season end with a three-game loss to second-seeded Pequot Lakes after opening up the tourney with a four-game win over seventh-seeded Foley.

Pequot Lakes went on to beat Albany for the section title.

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).

The Lakers started out 6-3 this season, including a third-place finish at the Lakeview Tourney, but then went 5-7 to fall to 11-10 late in the season.

The Lakers closed out the year with a 5-3 record, including losses to Hawley and Sauk Centre at the Fergus Falls Invitational and a loss to Pequot Lakes in the section quarterfinals.

WCA was the only WCC team to make it to state as the Knights beat BBE and Underwood to earn the Section 6A title and a berth at state.

Seniors who will be lost to graduation from this year’s volleyball team are Avery Fier, Haley Shea, Dreya Barsness, Brooklyn Meyer and Miaya Guggisberg. 

Other members of the Minnewaska Area volleyball team were juniors Dacia Fleury and Addyson Kath; sophomore Emma Poegel; ninth-graders Brooklyn Noyes, Elian Marthaler, Emma Hellermann and Haillie Schulz; and eighth-graders Mya VanLuik and Berlynn Green. Coaching the Lakers this year were Michele Johnson, Bailey Gronner, Kari Nelson and Jacalyn Skoglund.

Coach Michele Johnson has indicated that she’ll be stepping down as head coach next year.  “This is my last year as head coach at Minnewaska. It’s satisfying knowing the program has depth and has made a lot of growth. Looking forward to watching and hearing about them in the years to come. Very grateful for the support in the district and the community.”

Season statistics

In season statistics supplied by the coaches, the Lakers had a kill percentage of 19 percent this year.  Dreya Barsness led the way with 339 kills, followed by Avery Fier with 229, Haillie Schulz with 160, Dacia Fleury with 82 and Miaya Guggisberg with 34.

Among regulars, Fier led the Lakers with a kill percentage of 24 percent, while Barsness was next at 21 percent.

Barsness was the top server with 60 ace-serves, followed by Schulz with 38, Haley Shea with 34, Fier with 30 and Emma Poegel with 22.  Poegel also led the Lakers by making 96 percent of her serves, while Shea served at a 94 percent clip.  Overall, the Lakers made 91 percent of their serves this fall.

The top two setters for the Lakers this year were Shea with 517 set assists and Schulz with 363.  Shea earned her 2,000th career assist during the season-ending loss at Pequot Lakes.

Defensively, Fier led Minnewaska Area with 345 digs this season, followed closely by Barsness with 343, Poegel with 306, Shea with 196 and Schulz with 170.

Fier also had a team-high 31 blocks for the Lakers this year out of 120 for the team.  Guggisberg was next with 24.5, while Schulz had 17, Emma Hellermann had 13.5, Barsness had 12, Fleury had 10.5 and Addy Kath added 9.5.