MELLETTE – While Northwestern is no stranger to state volleyball tournaments, the Wildcats are making their first appearance after a two-year absence.
“It never gets old going to a state tournament, said Northwestern coach Nora Groft, who noted this weekend will be the first state tourney for many of her players. “It will be a new experience for a lot of them. We’re looking forward to it.”
While the Wildcats have not lost to a Class B opponent this season, they did run into an obstacle in the middle of their schedule.
“I felt really good about where we were and what we were doing,” Groft said, “and then we went on a string of injuries for the three weeks following that.”
That stretch of matches allowed other players to gain some varsity experience, but it also prevented the squad from gaining continuity with its normal starters.
“We played a good chunk of our schedule developing our bench. Our young kids and our bench players did a fantastic job. … It really gave us an opportunity to develop our bench, our younger kids did great,” Groft said, “but at the same time coming into regions we got everybody back, but we really hadn’t played together.”
Northwestern is led by seniors Ashley Haven, Ella Boekelheide, and Mikaela Schmitt.
“Ashley obviously gets it done statistically for us. Ella keeps everything light and positive. She’s such a positive kid and such a good competitor,” Groft said. “Mikaela Schmitt is such a fiery kid coming off the bench and is fantastic with our young kids, just hyping them up and making them feel welcome and comfortable.”
The Wildcats, 35-2 on the campaign, enter the state tourney as the second seed and will take on Gayville-Volin in the first evening game of the opening round. Groft knows all about the Raiders, having played them in a summer tournament a year ago.
“They play fantastic defense. Their Libero is really good. … We know what we’re up against. This is going to be a tough match,” Groft said. “Whoever wins it is going to deserve it, because it’s going to be earned. They play great defense. We’re an offensive team, so it’s going to be our strength against their strength. It should be a real good match.”
Groft noted that Gayville-Volin is capable of scoring plenty of points, so her team needs to limit errors against the Raiders.
“We’re going to have to keep the ball way from their Libero and force those other kids to step up,” Groft said. “I gotta believe that our kids can manage our errors a little bit better. Gayville-Volin can score 18-19 points a game, so that doesn’t allow us much room for error. We’ve got to keep our errors down in that single-digit 6 or 7 range.”
While it’s been a couple of years since competing in their last state tournament, the Wildcats will put a veteran squad on the floor with four players featuring state tourney experience.
Haven, Boekelheide, and Tara Blachford all played major minutes for Northwestern in the 2022 state tourney, and Lila Johnson who transfered from Hitchcock-Tulare, played in last year’s state tournament.
“I think these kids are just ready. They want to be there. They’ve worked so hard. They haven’t gotten discouraged. It’s been a tough road. They’ve kept at it,” Groft said. “It would have been easy for them to give up after they didn’t make it two years ago or last year. And that just motivated them even more. They stuck with it and they’ve earned this.”
It’s just a matter of seeing what they can do now that they Wildcats have returned to the biggest stage in South Dakota volleyball.
“These kids just work so hard. Whatever happens at the state tournament they can’t disappoint me,” Groft said. “Getting here is going to be such a great experience for them. … My hope for them is just that they play as well as they’re capable of, just so everyone can see what they can do.”
