Volleyball has eyes on state title

By: 
Gray Hughes

For the first time in program history, Hill City Rangers volleyball is going to the state tournament.

This, said head coach Lindsy Wathen, is a big deal and has been a goal for her team since she took the reins as coach four years ago.

“Every year we have gotten just a little bit, one step closer,” Wathen said on making the tournament. “So it’s pretty exciting, but we don’t want to limit it there. We want to go as far as we can in the state tournament.”

The Rangers will enter the state tournament, held this year in Watertown, as the second seed in Class A. They will start off their tournament with a game against Parker at 7 p.m. central time.

Right now, for Wathen’s team it comes down to the mental game, she said. Her girls are athletic, she said, and they have the skills to be the best.

It’s all about maintaining their skills, she said. Her team needs to be composed, calm and trust their abilities when it comes down to the “special situations.”

She has been trying to replicate all of that in her team’s practices, she said.

This is a special group of girls, she said, and a group of girls that have played together for a long time, with several of them playing travel basketball together as young as second and third grade.

For many of the girls on the team, their athletics career came to a peak when the Rangers girls basketball team qualified for the state tournament in March. However, because of the ongoing global pandemic caused by COVID-19, that tournament got canceled.

“I don’t know if it will heal it, but it will certainly help,” Wathen said of the effect qualifying for the tournament will have for the girls who qualified for the state basketball tournament. “With everything going on in the world with the pandemic, we just hope we get to get there, too.”

Wathen said her team has already accomplished a lot. Aside from making it to the state tournament, Hill City was also Black Hills Conference champions.

“We wanted it bad last year but lost one game within the conference, so we were just shy of that. So that was a big deal for us,” Wathen said.

This team has a lot of special players, starting with its five seniors, Wathen said, who have been playing under her for four years.

They’ve really stepped up and have played important roles, she added.

“Dale (Schrier) and Hailey (Wathen) are our big hitters,” Wathen said. “When they are on and they’re hitting balls down, we always pull away very easily.”

Others, too, have stepped up, including Macey Wathen, who Wathen said, grew a lot during the spring, Abby Siemonsma, who Wathen described as athletic and consistent, and Addision Barber, an eighth grader who has stepped up as a setter.

The Hill City community itself has been a tremendous supporter of the team, Wathen said. The gym, whenever they play, is always packed and the fans are always positive.

“If you can, send your good vibes our way and come to Watertown,” Wathen said.

 

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