VALLEY CITY, N.D. (Newsdakota.com) – The two times Valley City and Grand Forks Red River played this season, the visitor won in five sets after losing the first two. That was not going to happen tonight.
Valley City played arguably its best match of the season in a straight set win over the Roughriders in the quarterfinals of the East Region Tournament Tuesday night at the H-Liner Activity Center. The Hi-Liners won 25-16, 25-15, 25-14.
In the first set, Red River got a kill from Alex Page to tie the set at 4. That would be the end of the ties. Valley City scored the next six points and and 17 of the next 19 points to take a 21-6 lead. The Roughriders would make a run of 9-1 to cut the lead to 22-15. But the Hi-Liners would get three of the last four points for a 25-16 win.
In the second set, Red River would use a four point run to take a 6-3 lead. But the Hi-Liners used a 7-1 run to take a 10-7 lead. Back comes Red River, a 5-1 run tied the set at 11. But Valley City would score the next nine points to take a 20-11 lead and a 14-4 run to end the set for a 25-15 win.
In the third set the Hi-Liners jumped out to a 4-1 lead early. But unlike the first two sets, the Hi-Liners would not let Red River back in the one. The Riders got within 4-3 but that was it. Valley City would use an 13-3 run to go up 17-6 and then up 19-8. They would each score six points the rest of the way fora 25-14 Hi-Liner win.
Head Coach Mattie Cruff says this was a complete win for the Hi-Liners.
Three Hi-Liners had double-doubles. Natalie Lemnus had 18 assists, 11 digs and two aces. Dylann Diegel had 15 assists and 17 digs. And Cali Halgrimson added 13 kills and 15 digs. Macy Olstad had a team high 16 kills and three blocks. Lindsey Noeske chipped in five kills and Peyton Pederson had four. Libero Alyssa Hatcher and Jocey Kriewald each had 11 digs.
The Hi-Liners now move into the Championship semifinals where they will face Fargo Davies. The Eagles won in straight sets over Devils Lake. Cruff says if the Hi-Liners can play like this on Friday, you never now.
That semifinal match will be Friday night at 6pm at Fargo South. Pregame at 5:40 on AM 1490/ 96.3 FM KOVC and newsdakota.com.