Photo submitted by Hailey Gritmacker. The 2025 Dawson-Boyd volleyball team includes (front row, left to right) Claire Stratmoen, Katelynn Gruwell, Rylan Plessner, Ragan Viessman, Emma stotesbery (middle row) Aleah Bayless, Myiah Bothun, Lauren Lee, Kylar Hjelmeland, Hattie Kemen, (back row) manager Addison Jorgens, manager Elizabeth Jorgens, manager Carmen Larson, Rylan Viessman, Stella Roth, Kadyn Perkins, Kaylee Brent, head coach Hailey Gritmacker, C-squad coach Paige Diekmann and assistant coach Amber Omland.

DAWSON — After graduating a group of eight seniors a season prior, the Dawson-Boyd volleyball team looks to make strides forward in the 2025 season. The Blackjacks have steadily improved during head coach Hailey Gritmacker’s three seasons at the helm of the program, and this year they’re looking to make the jump up to double-digit wins for the first time.

“Our first year, we won six games. My second year it was eight, last year we won nine, so… we want to win 10 volleyball games,” Gritmacker said. “We know that we play in one of the toughest conference in the state of Minnesota, with typically four teams being ranked in the top 10 to 15, so we just want to play clean volleyball and have an exciting atmosphere for our fans. We want people to say, ‘Wow, this group has put in the work over the summer.'”

Gritmacker said that many of the parents who have supervised the captain’s practices over the summer have been impressed by how much growth the group has shown already despite the departure of eight seniors. Gritmacker added that she’s excited to see how the group can continue to grow over the next few years.

The Blackjacks’ season last year ended in the play-in round, entering as the No. 10 seed and falling in straight sets to No. 7 Lac qui Parle Valley. 

A big part of the team’s efforts to make steps forward this year comes down to the effort its put into its offense and minimizing mistakes at the net.

“We’re working on, when we do get blocked, when we do hit the ball out of bounds or at the net, how can we bounce back in that regard,” Gritmacker said. “Obviously being able to pass some of those tough serves, and that’s something that we lost in our senior class, they were really aggressive servers.”

The Blackjacks graduated five of their top seven players in terms of sets played at the end of last season. Reese Johnson headlined the group of graduating seniors with 199 kills and 55 digs, Bailey Bothun graduated at setter after tallying 340 set assists and 149 digs and Natyah Ritter graduated at libero with 142 digs last season.

Still, the Blackjacks aren’t without returning talent this season. Kadyn Perkins and Kylar Hjelmeland both got significant playing time last year at outside hitter and defensive specialist, respectively.

Among returners, Perkins led the team last year with 72 kills. She’s the only returner who tallied 40 or more. In the back row, Hjelmeland recorded 104 digs with 27 service aces. 

Kate Gruwell will be taking over the libero role for Ritter this time around. While Gruwell didn’t get significant varsity playing time last season, she showed potential during her time on the junior varsity squad.

One of the main things that Gritmacker said she’s seen improvement from her team on through the preseason this year is its ability to return out of system balls. It took the team some time to figure out who its setter was going to be in the preseason, but they cleaned things up shortly after landing on Claire Stratmoen to fill the role.

“If that second ball was anywhere behind the 10-foot line, we just had somebody else take it,” Gritmacker said. “So 60 to 70% of the high school game is played out of system, and if we can continue to better our out-of-system balls, and anybody can take that second ball with confidence knowing that they’re not going to be called for a double contact as long as the ball doesn’t go over, I think that’s really been a highlight of the program.”

This year, the Blackjacks will be running a lineup with its right side opposite of the middles so that a libero can go in for both players, Gritmacker said. Kaylee Brent will be taking rotations in the middle and on right side after missing the last two seasons with knee injuries, resulting in some surgeries that took over nine months of recovery time before she was able to return to the team this season. Stella Ross will also be taking the opposite position as a sophomore this season while Rylin Viessman and Lauren Lee will come off the bench in passing outside roles.

Dawson-Boyd started its season on Thursday with a loss to MACCRAY and will look to bounce back when it goes on the road to take on Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City on Tuesday.