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A win was always important for the North Branch volleyball team in their season opener against Becker on Thursday, October 8, but in the grand scheme of things, they were just happy to be back on the court.

In their season opener, they won the opening set before Becker evened it up, and then won two close sets to win the match between two good teams.
In their first action without the now-graduated Cianna Selbitschka, a balanced attack was the key for North Branch taming the Bulldogs.
 
It wasn’t uncommon for Selbitschka to be the only girl in double digit kills last year for the Vikings, but they had three of them against Becker, and another with nine kills.

Regan Irons and Paige Peaslee led the attack from the middle, each smashing 12 kills. Lindsey Bunes, who is replacing Selbitschka’s outside hitter spot, had 10 kills, and Lydia Kuhlman had nine. Kuhlman also had a team-leading 21 digs.

Paige Sheehan was varied and accurate with her passes and ended with 42 assists.

Maddie Helin had a nice all-around match, with five kills, four aces and 17 digs.

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