Prepping for success

It's an exciting time for Rocket athletics.

While the football team kicks off its season with lofty expectations, Rockets' volleyball is also raring to go, and they too are expecting big things this season.

Last year, the varsity girls enjoyed the best season in the history of Rockets' volleyball, beginning their run with a great regular season and earning second seed for the Region IV Volleyball Tournament.

They proceeded to make their way through the bracket, and ultimately stunned Langdon Area/Edmore/Munich in the region championship game. The upset win gave the Rockets their first region title in program history and punched their ticket to the state tournament in Bismarck.

They went on to make waves at the state tournament, taking fifth place and the consolation championship – not bad for their first ever state appearance.

All that success is now in the past, however, and the Rockets' new focus is finding their way back to the state tournament.

Volleyball practice officially began on Monday, Aug. 14, and head coach Sara Myhre said this is the most enthusiastic she's seen her volleyball team since becoming head coach six years ago.

"The energy is really high," she said. "This year the energy that these girls have is on a different level. Everybody's just so excited and there's so much talent."

Myhre credited last year's accomplishments for putting a little "oomph" in this year's team, and said the ladies have high hopes for the coming season.

"Making it to state I think was a good confidence booster," she said. "Of course we don't want to be overly confident, but the energy is just so high with these girls and it's so fun to see. I'm really looking forward to this season."

On Wednesday, Aug. 23, the Rockets were already eight practices into their season, and Myhre said it's been going well so far.

"At the beginning it's more conditioning, building team confidence, team bonding and now we're kind of getting into more specific position training." she said. "By the end of this week ... we're going to be going into team flow and building off of that."

Another big source of confidence for this year's Rockets is the number of returning starters. They lost two excellent seniors in Madi Myhre and Kyria Dockter, but the starting set is still packed with experience, as this year Kelsie Belquist, Ava Peterson, Lucy Meier, Lora Wobbema and Kaiya O'Connor all return for the Rockets.

Of course, Belquist in particular will be expecting to continue her dominance on the court. Last season she amassed 607 kills and 511 digs. She made a big impact at last year's state tournament, and was one of 14 athletes named to the 2022 Class B State All Tournament Team.

Belquist will also be looking for a big milestone early on this season. She ended the 2022 season just shy of 1,000 digs, after successfully hitting her 1,000th kill in the consolation matchup against the Garrison Troopers

Belquist, Wobbema and Meier have also been named this year's team captains, and Myhre stressed the importance of having leadership from all the returning starters.

"It's wonderful to have five returning starters, some of which are two or three-year starters," said Myhre. "... They're great role models for the rest of the girls, and we're all just really excited."

Myhre said she doesn't yet know what the official starting lineup will look like, but it won't be long until Rocket fans find out.

Their first game will take place in Thompson, N.D. on Tuesday, Aug. 29, and soon afterward they'll have another tough opponent in Medina–Pingree/Buchanan at their home opener on Tuesday, Sept. 5.

This time a year ago both of those teams swept the Rockets in three sets. Needless to say, they'll be looking to put up a better fight this time around.

"We play Thompson next week, and that's always a really good competitive game and it's kind of like a base to see where we're at," said Myhre.

The Rockets' volleyball team will be counting on plenty of community support throughout the season. They'll be fun to watch, so make sure to support the volleyball team as they embark on their own season with high expectations.