Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – The Detroit Lakes volleyball team has won the Section 8AAA championship for the second year in a row.
The Lakers had a tough match against the top-seeded Rocori Spartans on Thursday night at Alexandria High School, but managed to secure their victory with a 3-2 win.
The match went into a fifth and deciding set. It was the first time the Lakers had been in a fifth set this season (31 matches), and senior Grace Gunderson made the winning kill with an assist from fellow senior Ava Jones.
Although the Lakers lost the first set 25-17, they managed to bounce back in the second set and win 25-20.
The Spartans won the third set with the help of junior outside hitter Kate Holthaus, who led the Spartans in kills.
However, Holthaus suffered an injury late in the match and never returned in the fifth set.
The Lakers had a team effort on the attack with Logan Fredrickson and Helen Daggett in the middle and on the outside Rylee Johnson and Addie Wills providing outside spark.
Senior captain Grace Gunderson led the Lakers in offense. Senior setter Ava Jones, who has over 2,000 career assists, navigated the floor for the Lakers, distributing the ball to the attackers. Defensive specialist Hailey Thielen provided a strong defense for the Lakers and nullified the Spartan’s coordinated attacks.
The Lakers fell behind 2-1 in the match but managed to win the fourth set 25-21 and the fifth set 15-11.
Despite losing to the Spartans in the regular season, Detroit Lakes was undeterred and gained confidence after defeating Alexandria 3-1 in the semifinals.
Their first-year head coach Rachel Solum, expressed her happiness in the efforts of her team, “It’s a little bit surreal. We are peaking at the right time, and we played composed tonight, and I think Tuesday night got us ready for tonight’s win.”
DL will be returning to state this year after winning the state consolation championship last year.
The seeds for the tournament will be announced on November 5th. The volleyball state tournament will be held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Here is a link to the Class AAA bracket: https://www.mshsl.org/tournaments/2023-state-class-aaa-volleyball-girls-tournament.
KDLM will broadcast all the Lakers’ matches at state.
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