Blue Knights Volleyball Gets 3 Wins at Anoka Tournament

The Blue Knights volleyball team picked up 3 straight wins at the Anoka Ramsey Volleyball tournament on Saturday. The team made some huge improvements and showed their determination to keep improving.

The Knights dominated the first match against Rainy River and won in 3 straight sets, 25-12, 25-16, and 25-13. The Knights played solid and consistent as a team and ended with a .338 hitting %. They held Rainy River to a negative hitting percentage for the match at -.150%.

Freshman, Mackenna Johnson, led the way with 12 kills and hit .370%. Freshman, Jada Aljubailah, added 6 kills and 2 blocks. Freshman setter, Anika Weber had 35 assists and 9 digs. Freshman, Lexi Wendland was impressive behind the service line with 6 aces. She also added 5 kills and 9 digs. Freshman, Haily Dabrowski led the Knights defense with 11 digs.

In match #2, the Blue Knights faced Hibbing and beat them in 4 sets, 25-21, 25-21, 15-25, and 25-18. The Knights showed resiliency against the scrappy Hibbing team and fought through some fatigue.

Lexi Wendland led the Knights in the second match with 11 kills, 15 digs, and 3 aces. Anika Weber had 35 assists, led the team with 20 digs, and also had 5 kills. Jada Aljubailah led the team in hitting efficiency with 5 kills and .417 hitting %. Haily Dabrowski added 13 digs and Sophomore Kim Stinnett added 7 digs.

For the final match of the day, the Knights faced off against another solid defensive team of Itasca. The Knights won in 3 straight sets, 25-9, 25-21, and 25-22.

Sophomore Sonje Odegard led the team with 9 kills (.692 hitting%), 2 aces, and 5 blocks. Sophomore Sam Car added 6 kills (.625 hitting %). Mackenna Johnson also added 9 kills and 2 aces. Lexi Wendland added 7 kills and 9 digs. Kim Stinnett led the defense with 11 digs. Haily Dabrowski added 7 digs and 4 aces. Setter, Anika Weber, had 39 assists and 3 aces.

"I am really proud of our team. We faced some early struggles on the road, but we got back in the gym for practice and made some major improvements. The team worked extremely hard the entire day to maintain consistent effort and communication. It's not easy to play 10 sets in a row with just a 10 minute break in between matches. We had so many players contribute to our success and we had a very balanced offensive attack. We needed a complete team effort to be successful today, and that is what they did." said head coach Jen Bowman. "I am looking forward to getting back in the gym on Monday to see how many more improvements we can make before our next match. Our goal is to put in the work, keep improving, and see how far it can take us."

The Blue Knights are on the road Wednesday as they head to Bethany Lutheran College at 7pm. The Knights are home again on Friday with 2 matches: 3pm against Mesabi Range, and 7pm against Oak Hills Christian College.