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   The Hill City/Northland Storm volleyball team beat Walker-Hackensack-Akeley in three sets, 27-25; 25-22 and 25-18, on Thurs., Aug. 28. Top stats for the night went to Dani Hannula with three ace serves; Taylor Washburn with sen set assists and fifteen digs; Charity Berg with eight kills and sixteen digs and Nora Wake with four blocks.

   The girls then began a three game road tour with the first stop at East Central Tues., Sept. 2 where they walked away with a win in three sets, 25-15; 25-17 and 25-12. Top stats at East Central went to seniors Maddie Barnes, Ashlyn Schwarz and Charity Berg. Barnes had seven ace serves and twelve digs for the evening, while Schwarz contributed seven kills and Berg ended the evening with six kills and fourteen digs.

Sophmore Nora Wake goes for a kill, while teammates wait to assist. Photo Submitted.

   Thurs., Sept. 4 saw the girls in Chisholm where they ended up with a loss in three sets, 15-25; 15-25 and 18-25. Berg had three ace serves, six kills and eleven digs at Chisholm. Washburn had ten set assits and nine digs, while Barnes came up with nine digs.

   Head Coach Stacey Wake stated “We are off to a quick start this season with seven games under our belt already. I’m seeing a lot of good things and noticing areas that still need improvement. Our last three games couldn’t have been any more different. In our match against East Central  we were able to get everyone off the bench into the game and then we had a very tight and exciting match against Walker. We knew going in against Chisholm it was going to be a tough game, they are a highly skilled team and playing in their gym is always a hard environment. We set small goals for ourselves throughout the match and celebrated the small victories as we accomplished them. I’m very proud of this team, they have great chemistry and are very fun to watch.”

   The ladies travel to Cromwell-Wright Tues., Sept. 9 before hosting Littlefork-Big Falls on Thurs., Sept. 11 in Remer. On Sat., Sept. 13 the Storm will attend the annual Crosby-Ironton Tournament which begins at 9 a.m. On Tues., Sept. 16 the ladies will face off against Deer River in Hill City. 

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