The Minnewaska Area volleyball team had another winning season in 2024.  The Lakers, who went 16-13 overall in 2023, went 18-10 this season, including an 11-3 record in the WCC.

Minnewaska earned the seventh seed in the Section 6AA Tourney and beat Osakis in four games during the opener before losing in a three-game sweep to second-seeded Sauk Centre in the section quarterfinals.

Sauk Centre went on to lose in five games to Albany for the Section 6AA title.

Coaching the Lakers this season was first-year head coach Mitch McGuire, who was assisted by assistant coach McKenzie Newton, JV coach Bailey Ver Steeg and C-squad coach Taylor Amundson.

The Lakers started the season off strong, improving to 10-2 overall after a three-game sweep of Montevideo.  Minnewaska Area lost four of its next seven matches to drop to 13-6 before going 5-4 the rest of the way.

During tournaments, the Lakers went 3-1 at the Lakeview Tourney, 2-2 at Alexandria and 1-3 at the Fergus Falls Invitational.

The Lakers won seven matches by 3-0 sweeps this season and lost only two matches by 3-0 shutouts, both times to Sauk Centre.

The Lakers will lose two seniors to graduation, Dacia Fleury and Addy Kath, but the team does return the other nine players that saw action during the section tourney, including four sophomores and three freshmen.

Sauk Centre won this year’s WCC title with a 13-1 record, followed by West Central Area (12-2), Minnewaska (11-3), BOLD (8-6), Melrose (6-8), Morris Area (4-10), Montevideo (1-13) and Benson (1-13).  

Stats and awards

Earning All-Conference for the Lakers this season were Dacia Fleury and Haillie Schulz, while Berlynn Green was selected to the honorable mention team.  Schulz and Fleury were also captains for the Lakers this fall.

Schulz earned the Lakers’ Most Valuable Player award for 2024, while Fleury was named the MVP Offensive Player and Emma Poegel earned the MVP Defensive Player honor.

In addition, Addy Kath won the 2024 Minnewaska volleyball Laker Award.

Named to the WCC Academic All-Conference team for 2024 (grade-point average of 3.75 or higher and 10th-12th grade) were:  Dacia Fleury, Addy Kath, Emma Hellermann, Brooklyn Noyes, Eliana Marthaler, Avery Lewison, Hailey Wesen, Haillie Schulz, Kylie Erickson, Carly Jergenson and Emma Poegel.

•  Fleury had a monster season statistically for the Lakers, leading the team with 316 kills and a kill percentage of 22 percent.  She was also third on the team with 225 digs and 23 blocks.

Poegel led the Lakers with 296 digs this season while also serving at a 94 percent clip and recording 19 ace-serves.  Mya VanLuik was second on the team with 160 kills, while Schulz added 72, Emma Hellermann had 62 and Avery Lewison had 59 kills.

Schulz led the team with a serve percentage of 98 percent, 31 ace-serves and 615 set assists and was also second on the team with 33.5 blocks and fourth with 188 digs.

Berlynn Green had a great all-around season with 37 kills, 27 ace-serves, 234 digs and eight blocks, while Kath had 44 kills and 19.5 blocks, Lewison had a team-high 49.5 blocks, Eliana Marthaler had 30 kills and was fifth on the team with 157 digs, and Hellermann also had 19 blocks.

This year’s roster

This year’s Minnewaska varsity roster was very young with only two seniors and two juniors among the top 16 players.  

The varsity includes seniors Addy Kath (RH) and Dacia Fleury (OH); juniors Emma Poegel (DS) and Carly Jergenson (RH); sophomores Haillie Schulz (S), Emma Hellermann (MB), Eliana Marthaler (RH), Avery Lewison (MB), Kylie Erickson (DS), Hailey Wesen (MB) and Brooklyn Noyes (DS); ninth-graders Mya VanLuik (OH), Berlynn Green (OH), Michaela Johnson (PIN) and Kyra Nelson (DS); and eighth-grader Taylor Schulz (OH).

•  The JV team included Carly Jergenson (RH), Ashley Murken (MB), Haylee Kasper (PIN), Kylie Erickson (S), Michaela Johnson (PIN), Alexis Shea (PIN), Kyra Nelson (S), Zaevri Kapryce (MB), Allison Curry (PIN), Taylor Schulz (OH), Hailey Wesen (MB), Brooklyn Noyes (DS), Anna Kollman (DS) and Brooklyn Sanders (DS), while the C-squad team included Kylie Fenger (DS), Jazlyn Fleury (DS), Ella Nielsen (DS), Khloe Murken (OH), Emma Hawkinson (MB), Claira Frey (S), Harper Smith (DS), Aubri Suckstorff (DS), Aubrey Roering (OH), Elle Spanier (MB), Laney MacDonald (S), Miranda Grossman (RS) and Kennedy Sanders (OH). Schulz, Fleury are All-WCC and Green is honorable mention in volleyball

Check out more photos in our photo gallery!