Photo courtesy of Koepke Sports Photography: The 2025 Yellow Medicine East volleyball team includes (front row, left to right) McKenna Schroeder, Chasity Schmitz, Everra Leenerts, Kourtney Peterson, Ella Cherveny, Londyn Dorame, (back row, left to right) assistant coach Aimee Johnson, assistant coach Courtney Lange, Hanna Bjorndal, Bailey Mortenson, Abbey Bones, Alana Almich, Bayli Sneller, Lexi Stengel and head coach Arei Stokes.

GRANITE FALLS — Returning nearly its entire roster from a year prior, the Yellow Medicine East volleyball team is in position to make deeper strides led by a group of four starting seniors in the 2025 season. 

YME is looking to break even and surpass a winning record for the first time since 2018 with nine returners and a trio of new players, led by seniors Alana Almich, Lexi Stengel, Bayli Sneller and Ella Cherveny, all of whom were starters last year. 

“The team has a lot of potential. Last year, it was a lot of new things,” YME second-year head coach Arei Stokes said. “Brand new coach, these girls were just in an adjustment. I was really proud of everything they did, but it was just [a lot of] changes. Changes are tough.” 

Stokes took over the program last season, and played six years of varsity volleyball during her time at Bertha-Hewitt High School. She came to Granite Falls after playing basketball at the University of Jamestown and working with the university volleyball staff after graduation. 

The Sting finished their 2024 campaign 6-19, an improvement from their 1-17 record in 2023. Their season came to an end in a loss to Lakeview in three sets at the Section 3A play-in round as the No. 9 seed. 

“My expectations really are, I need effort, talking to each other and being a team,” Stokes said. “We had times where we’d have some disconnect of different things last year, and I really wanted to work with that (this season).”

Along with the seniors, YME returns Everra Leenerts, Kourtney Peterson, Hanna Bjorndal, Bailey Mortenson and Abbey Bones.

YME graduated its lone senior in libero Klaira Shackelford, who finished last season with 206 digs. Stokes said Cherveny, who also spent time last year as a defensive specialist, plans to become the team’s primary libero.

Leading the Sting last year was Stengel with 316 assists and 24 aces, who returns as the starting setter this year.

Almich finished her junior year with a .186 hitting percentage and 150 kills, Bones recorded 83 kills on a .230 average and Bjorndal had 19 ace blocks.

“I really rely on them [seniors] like, ‘I need you girls to be leaders, and I need you to get these other kids ready to go. They’re going to look at you, you’ve been around this program longer than I have,'” Stokes said. “They’ve done a really, really great job of taking that and just elevating it, and getting these girls coming in, wanting to be here and loving the game of volleyball.”

The Sting have also added three new players in sophomore Chasity Schmitz, junior Londyn Dorame and freshman transfer from Renville County West McKenna Schroeder. All three are defensive specialists. 

“There’s a couple new faces that they’ll see just around the area, but these girls have been playing together [for a while],” Stokes said. “They’ve been really, really active in just creating a team atmosphere. [That’s] probably what I’m most proud of them.” 

In one of the team meetings during preseason, the group came up with a set of words they want to devote to this year, Stokes said. The team came up with “fun,” “winning,” “competitive” and “growth.” 

“Volleyball is a very fun sport, yeah, but it’s also a very tough sport if you don’t work at the other things,” Stokes said. “That just shows how much they have matured (over) a year.” 

YME opened up last year dropping eight of its first ten matches, four of which were during a weekend tournament at Lakeview High School. 

From there, the Sting picked up occasional wins, including three of five matches at the Marshall tournament in early October.  

“I pulled them [during a meeting], I said, ‘Here’s the deal, you guys are good enough to not play in that play-in game [during sections].’ I want us to get out of that play-in game, because we can,” Stokes said. “I said, ‘Girls, you are in games with state-caliber teams.’ … I just feel that they’ve got such a fire under them.” 

Throughout preseason, Stokes noted that she’s seen a team improvement with playing through the entire match, which she felt as if they would tend to get worn out toward the final set last year. 

Stokes reported no major injuries as YME begins the season, and all players are healthy. 

The Sting will open their season today when they host Wabasso at 7 p.m. YME will then hit the road to Hancock on Tuesday at the same time. 

“They’re taking and building a culture that YME is going to be very proud to have,” Stokes said. “I’m very excited for that.”