Photos by Jake McNeill Above: Lakeview’s Khya Garawecki (10) and Taylor Hinz (8) celebrate a point with their teammates during a Section 3A volleyball tournament play-in match against Dawson-Boyd on Monday in Cottonwood.

COTTONWOOD — For the third consecutive season, the Lakeview Lakers came away with a win in the play-in round of the Section 3A North tournament. Hosting 10th-seeded Dawson-Boyd, the No. 7 Lakers built early momentum and never looked back, cruising to a 25-8, 25-12, 25-14 win to set up a match against Central Minnesota Christian in the subsection quarterfinals on Friday.

“I think just the feeling of it being the last one is what gets you through it,” Lakeview’s Aubrey Nething, one of three seniors on the team along with Kiara Hinz and Teegan Fiene, said of the match being the last in Cottonwood for the graduating trio. “It has to be the best you’ve ever done because it won’t happen again. Just cherish every moment.”

Lakeview entered the season with bypassing the play-in round as one of its goals. While the Lakers weren’t able to reach the No. 6 seed, they looked the part of a strong No. 7 seed as they came out with momentum against the Blackjacks. The ability to play on their home court and celebrate all of the blood, sweat and tears that they’ve put into the court was key for the Laker players’ early success, Lakeview head coach Alexis Lienemann said.

“These girls have had early, early mornings, they’ve lifted every single day after practice, and they show up for each other, thick and thin,” Lienemann said. “It just feels good to be able to execute a win in the first round.”

The two teams traded points to start the second set before the Lakers pulled away with 7 unanswered points. Laia Javens got a kill and combined with Aubrey Nething for a block to start the run, and a Taylor Hinz kill brought the score to 5-1 when Dawson-Boyd called its first timeout. Still, Kiara Hinz served up consecutive aces to give Lakeview a 8-1 lead before a Kadyn Perkins kill ended the drought.

Perkins led the Blackjacks in kills on the night with seven, while the Blackjacks as a whole were consistently able to avoid attacking errors. Dawson-Boyd head coach Hailey Gritmacker credited Perkins for being aggressive and accurate with her outside attacks.

“Both of our outsides take a majority of our balls, so we knew that we had to hit clean in order to make that happen,” Gritmacker said of the team’s ability to force Lakeview to make plays, adding that she felt that the Blackjacks lacked opportunities in set 1 and 2 due to uncharacteristic struggles on the serve receive. “It always starts with the pass, and that’s definitely something we lacked tonight.”

Lakeview kept surging ahead with another run of 7 unanswered points to take total command of the set. Adison Hinz served up a pair of aces, Nething recorded a pair of kills and Allison Isaacs and Taylor Hinz each added another as the Laker lead ballooned to 14-2 before Perkins got another drought-ending kill.

​”I think just putting the trust in each other and allowing us to rely on each other, instead of putting all the pressure on yourself, really helps us work as one,” Kiara Hinz said of the team’s early tone-setting run.

“I think we all just love each other, love the game, and we just come out ready to play,” Fiene added. “We just enjoy doing it, and that’s what makes it fun.”

Taylor Hinz led the Lakers with 10 kills in the match, followed by seven from Nething and five from Kiara Hinz. Javens also added four kills for the Lakers.

From there, the Lakeview lead only continued to increase. The Lakers led by as many as 17 points in the frame, and a block from Nething and Javens brought up set point for Lakeview. Perkins kept the Blackjacks alive for another point with a kill, but a hitting error from Dawson-Boyd sealed the Lakers’ 25-8 win.

Heading into this past weekend, Lienemann said the coaching staff encouraged the team to be confident in itself and practice positive affirmations with themselves to get in the right mindset.

“I think going in and having grit and endurance, that’s what they reminded themselves of,” Lienemann said. “When we have those streaks and we’re going, going, going, I also like to think we practiced and prepared them enough, which showed a lot. We just really preach consistency behind the service line and just to play defense to their game, so it’s really good to see it all come together.”

Defensively, Javens and Nething led the Lakers with three blocks each in the match. In the mack row, Garawecki paced the Lakers with nine digs and 19 set assists, while Adison Hinz contributed another six digs.

Lakeview’s defensive success can largely be attributed to its communication on the court, Kiara Hinz said, adding that the passers and setters do a good job of relaying what they’re seeing and what they’re planning on setting so that their teammates can get in position.

Stratmoen led the Blackjacks’ defensive back row with 11 digs in the match while Hjelmeland and Hattie Kemen added nine and eight, respectively.

A Laker blocking error and a Claire Stratmoen kill gave Dawson-Boyd the first pair of points in the second set before the Lakers got back into a rhythm. One kill from Taylor Hinz and two from Kiara Hinz helped push Lakeview into the driver’s seat, and a Nething block brought the score to 7-1 when Dawson-Boyd called its first timeout of the frame.

Dawson-Boyd and Lakeview briefly traded points after the timeout, culminating in a Taylor Hinz ace to bring the score to 12-4.

The Blackjacks responded with kills from Kylar Hjelmeland and Rylan Plessner, and a hitting error cut the deficit to 5 points before the Lakers started to pull back ahead. Lakeview controlled the game down the stretch before a Javens kill finalized the 25-12 win.

Stratmoen served consecutive aces to start the final game for Dawson-Boyd, and a service error against Lakeview gave Dawson-Boyd a 3-1 lead.

Yet, a pair of Javens kills and another each from Taylor and Adison Hinz and Garawecki brought Lakeview’s lead to 6-3. The Lakers scored 5 of the next 7 points from there to prompt a Blackjack timeout, trailing 11-5.

The Blackjacks played Lakeview evenly from there but couldn’t significantly cut into the Lakeview lead, with Dawson-Boyd calling a timeout trailing 15-8. Still, a strong blocking up front from Isaacs, a pair of service aces from Nicole Schwartz and a kill from Taylor Hinz helped spur Lakeview to a double-digit lead.

Lienemann said that she felt her team did a good job of serving the ball below the antenna and avoiding putting slow, high-arcing serves in play to put more pressure on the Blackjacks’ serve-receive.

“When it can kind of coast right across the tip of the plane of the net, it’s really nice because those are hard balls to receive,” Lienemann said. “They did a phenomenal job of staying consistent back there. And Nicole likes that five-court line, so she got a couple aces there. It was nice to see her get all cheery for that.”

Lakeview led by as many as 13 points in the final set. Dawson-Boyd scored 3 unanswered points facing match point, but Taylor Hinz eventually hit the match-sealing kill, giving the Lakers a 25-14 win.

“We’ve been working on extending rallies with defense, and toward the end of all three sets, I saw a lot of hustle plays,” Gritmacker said. “We were running out toward the bleachers, or they would throw one short and we’d run into the court for those short balls, so it’s been really fun to see the kids step up their level of defense and take that to the next level next year. I’m excited to see how their offseason work pays dividends for next year.”

The match was a return to Cottonwood for Gritmacker, who coached the Lakers for three years before taking over the Dawson-Boyd position. Lienemann was the Lakers’ senior libero in Gritmacker’s final year in Lakeview, and Gritmacker added that it’s always fun coaching against the Lakers because she worked with a lot of the current Laker players when they were in third or fourth grade.

“As a head coach a lot of times, you get to work with some of those [elementary-age] kids, so to see them at this next stage…. It’s just fun to be back and it’s always going to have a special place in my heart,” Gritmacker said, adding that she was grateful to the community for making her feel welcome during her time with the team. “It definitely paved my start, but I’m excited to be in Dawson. Next year will be year 10 as a coach in the State High School League, so it’s something a lot of people don’t get to. They talked at the coaches clinic last year that it’s either five years or you’re a lifer, so I’m excited next year to gross that bridge.”

Lakeview improves to 14-12 with the win, clinching a winning record to improve on last year’s 10-11 finish. The Lakers will head to Prinsburg on Friday at 7 p.m. to take on No. 2 Central Minnesota Christian in the 3A North quarterfinals. After pushing the Bluejays in each of the three sets when they met earlier in the season, with CMC earning a 25-19, 25-20, 25-16 win, Lienemann said her team is looking to remain focused and locked in because they don’t have the room to make errors and climb back into the match.

“[We’re focusing on] just believing in ourselves and our team. We can do it, and if everyone’s on that page, then we can win,” Fiene said, with Kiara Hinz adding that continuing to stay motivated in practice and putting in as much work as possible can help the team maximize its potential.

Dawson-Boyd finishes its season at 1-23. The Blackjacks had a notably young team this season, graduating just one senior in Plessner.

“She’s [Plessner] been a great leader. She’s humble, she’s quiet, but she speaks volumes to what we’re about here at Dawson-Boyd volleyball,” Gritmacker said. “She’s polite.. She works hard, she’s a great leader and she gets in the gym and makes sure the younger players are held accountable for getting in the gym as well. She’ll be missed in the middle next year. A great kid and a great leader, I wish her the best for her future.”