DHS sweeps St. Mary’s in home finale
For six Dickinson High seniors, it was the final time they would step into the DHS gymnasium as the home volleyball team.By: Royal McGregor, The Dickinson Press
- Hanna Beaudoin and Taylor Cooper
For six Dickinson High seniors, it was the final time they would step into the DHS gymnasium as the home volleyball team.
The Midgets got contributions from all six seniors on their way to a sweep of Bismarck St. Mary’s, 27-25, 25-20, 25-15, in West Region match on Thursday night.
“When you have a senior night, you never know how kids are going to react,” Dickinson head coach Jay Schobinger said. “We just went back and started running that 6-2 again. We ran a lot of new things tonight. The kids handled it and responded real well. In the end, St. Mary’s dug a lot of balls and got a lot of touches on blocks.”
The six seniors for the Midgets are Taylor Cooper, Ali Moody, Abby Grove, Rachel Schroeder, Jess Priebe and Hanna Beaudoin. Despite the increase in enthusiasm because of senior night, St. Mary’s was ready to go from the start.
“We had a tough night Tuesday and they didn’t want to repeat that,” St. Mary’s head coach Amy Heuer said. “We knew that Dickinson was going to be tough and they were ready.”
The first and second sets were near mirror images of each other. Both were battles.
“We knew that their middles were going to be tough,” Heuer said. “We worked on that, so we were doubling every time they went up.”
There were 12 ties in the first set alone — that was until Grove knocked down a kill to send the set to match-point. Grove had a match-high 14 kills.
Junior Keely Hutchens didn’t take many swings. But she made one count, ending the first set with a kill.
The second set came down to St. Mary’s (15-13, 7-8 West) giving up back-to-back attack errors to give the Midgets a 20-19 lead.
Dickinson (23-8, 9-3 West) took full advantage, going on a 5-1 run to close out the set on a Moody kill, a Mackee Hoffmann ace, a Cooper block and a Grove kill.
“We just needed to pick each other up, we needed to communicate more and not get down on each other,” Grove said. “We just needed to end with a good win. We saw that in the third set.”
After the second set win, Dickinson wasn’t messing around, handling the third set with ease. The Midgets opened up with a 3-0 lead and didn’t falter once.
“It was nice that we got going in the third set and reestablish things,” Schobinger said.
Dickinson senior setter Ali Moody, who gave her verbal commitment to play volleyball for the North Dakota State on Wednesday, supplied three of final five points to take the sweep. Moody finished with 22 assists, 14 digs, nine kills and two aces.
“I thought our setters did a nice job of spreading the ball around,” Schobinger said. “To be successful, we are going to have to spread the ball again. We can’t be predictable.”
Schroeder added nine kills and two blocks for the Midgets. Priebe posted nine digs and two aces.
For the Saints, Mary Roller had eight kills, two aces and 24 digs. Kaylyn Herold added five kills, three assists, two blocks and 21 digs.
Dickinson has two more road matches before tournaments begin. They visit Minot High at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
“We just have to keep that confidence level up,” Grove said. “We can’t keep thinking we are going to win every single game. We have to go in, play hard and hope we come out with win.”
SM 25 20 15 — 0
Dickinson 27 25 25 — 3
Kills: SM, Mary Roller 8, Katelyn Schaffner 5, Kaylyn Herold 5. D, Abby Grove 14, Ali Moody 9, Rachel Schroeder 9.
Blocks: SM, Ashley Wanner 2, Herold 2, Catherine Marher 1, Meghan Huber 1. D, Schroeder 2.
Aces: SM, Roller 2, Allie Reisenauer 2, Taylor Peterson 2. D, Jess Priebe 2, Mackee Hoffmann 2, Moody 2.
Digs: SM, Roller 24, Herold 21, Schaffner 14. D, Moody 14, Priebe 9, Hoffmann 8.
Assists: SM, Reisenauer 13, Kala Frank 9, Herold 3. D, Moody 22, Madison Schobinger 7.
Records: SM 15-13, 7-8 West. D 23-8, 9-3 West.
Tags: high school volleyball, dickinson midgets, bismarck st. mary's, sports, preps
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