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The North Branch volleyball team is on a hot streak after playing a ton of games as part of the Midwest Volleyball Warehouse Showcase in Burnsville over two days  Friday, September 13 and Saturday, September 14.

But, before they piled five games into two days, the Lady Vikes squashed Big Lake on Tuesday, September 10 to keep their perfect Mississippi 8 Conference record in tact.

North Branch 3, Big Lake 0

 The Vikings had a little bit of trouble with the Hornets in the first set, but held them off for a 25-21 win. And once they were rolling, there was nothing Big Lake could do to slow them down. North Branch won the second set 25-12 and then comfortably wrapped up the sweep with a 25-19 win in the third set.

Senior Dakota Esget led the Vikings with 13 kills, nine digs, three aces and a block. Sophia Benedict had seven kills and 10 digs, and Avery Smith had a nice all around game for NB, with three kills, three blocks, two aces and five digs. Setter Jenna Minke had 27 assists in the quick match.

Midwest Volleyball Warehouse Classic

The Vikings played some elite teams in the giant Burnsville tournament, doing more than holding their own, going 4-1 on the weekend. 

North Branch opened the tourney by dealing Class A power Byron their first loss of the year. North Branch won the first set in the best of three 25-19 before dropping the second 25-22. In a race to 15, the score wasn’t settled by that point, as someone had to win by two. The back-and-forth battle eventually swung NB’s way and they won 20-18.

North Branch continued pool play with a 2-0 loss to Benidle-St. Margaret’s. The Red Knights won the first set convincingly, 25-15, but North Branch responded with a tough answer in the second set before falling 29-27.

In their third and final pool play match, the Vikings were in another three set tussle. They followed the same script they did against Byron, winning the first and third sets, with the final set going down to the wire at 15-13.

Unfortunately for the Vikings, Byron beat Benilde in the last match of pool play, so there was a three way tie in Pool 4 with NB, Byron and Benilde all standing at 2-1. Despite North Branch beating Byron, the Bears were awarded the top seed and a spot in the Gold Bracket. This was due to them winning five sets – as they won a set in their loss while Benilde and North Branch were both swept in their losses. And then for the second seed, Benilde won the head-to-head match up with NB, so they were awarded a spot in the Silver Bracket, which left NB in the Bronze Bracket.

They proceeded to sweep DeLaSalle in the semifinals, winning easily 25-14, 25-18, which they were hoping would set them up for a rematch with Grand Rapids, who is NB’s chief competition in Section 7AAA later this year. But, the Thunderhawks, who had gone 1-2 in their pool play, lost to Alexandria in the semis 26-24 and 25-16.

In the final, which was officially for ninth place, North Branch hammered the Cardinals 25-16, 25-16 to finish ninth overall. Benilde finished fifth and Byron finished third.

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