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DICKINSON — The Dickinson Midgets' season continues into next week, after winning their West Region play-in match against Turtle Mountain Community High School (Belcourt).
A quarterfinal spot was secured for the Midgets (#6) by way of a shutout performance at home on Friday night. The 3-0 (25-15, 25-6, 25-14) match was won across the court, but gained its biggest boost courtesy of the service line — securing 16 aces. The Braves (#8) would put up a fight, but could never take control of the game.
“We needed to come in and take care of business and that is exactly what we did,” Jay Schobinger, DHS head coach, said. “I think we took control from the service line and kept them out of it… We worked a lot of short serves today and [Belcourt] didn’t handle it very well.”
The first set was tied at 7 when Dickinson would begin a seven-point run courtesy of Kendra King serving. Blocking upfront, including Jenna Decker's solo blocks would make it 23-15 and prove to be the final nail in the coffin for Belcourt.
Libero Baylee Berg collected four aces in the second set, contribute late in a rally that saw Berg make two crucial saves. Her set would continue to be dominating, capped with a block that kept a 9-point run alive.
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Belcourt took an early lead in the third set, but would relinquish it on the heels of placement issues, lack of communication and mental errors.
Senior Alyssa Curtis stepped onto the court in the third set and showed great reflexes and intuition to garner a save immediately following a blocked attack. Her quickness would see a kill tallied later in the set.
Dickinson totaled half of their aces in the final set, with Homiston leading with four. Homiston and Pearcy each collected two — both serving back-to-back aces.
Caton Pearcy had some trouble getting over the net, but as usual, was the Midgets’ deadliest attacker with eight kills. Pearcy would also lead in digs with 18. Both Decker and Sadie Stevenson had two blocks each to share the lead. Berg, Homiston and Jenna Nelson each had four aces, Pearcy had three and King had a single ace.
Coming into the tournament as the No. 6 team, Dickinson will be going into the tournament facing Bismarck Legacy and share a bracket with Jamestown and Minot. The quarterfinal matches will begin Thursday, Nov. 10.
