Impressive day for Thunder at Northern Cass

Just one calendar year ago, the Medina/Pingree-Buchanan Thunder took a 1-4 match record against all comers in their first action of the season, the Northern Cass Tournament in Hunter.

One year later, and the Thunder have certainly turned some heads with their 2023 performance at the same event.

M-P-B took down several Class B blue-bloods in surging to a mirror image 4-1 record this time around, and have served notice that they could be a possible contender in the Region 3 race.

Playing in Pool C, the Thunder earned three-set wins over the Enderlin Eagles (25-9, 21-25, 15-10) and Hillsboro/Central Valley Burros (12-25, 25-23, 15-12). In what could be a possible changing of the guard in District 6, M-P-B swept defending region champion Linton-HMB, 25-17 and 25-14, to finish out the pool in style.

That put the Thunder in the elite Black Bracket for tournament play, where longtime Class B power Langdon/Edmore/Munich was the first opponent. M-P-B's big run continued with another blanking over the Cardinals, 25-20 and 25-21.

With the victory, Coach Jacie Connell's program faced off with defending state champion and tourney host Northern Cass. The Thunder gave the Jaguars all they could handle in a 23-25 first set loss, but NC had a slightly easier time in set two, 17-25.

Northern Cass won the tournament by defeating Gold Bracket champion LaMoure/Litchville-Marion in the finals.

M-P-B started their season last Tuesday night in Pingree against the Griggs/Midkota Titans. See related article above for match results.

Cumulative stats from the tournament for M-P-B are as follows:

Kills: Allison Thomas 32, Maddie Gefroh 24, Brynn Sorenson 23, Jorgen Tripp 6, Violet Bohl 5, Cierra Mack 4, Alaina Bosche 1.

Assists: Bohl 81, Bosche and Sorenson 2, Mack, Thomas and Tripp 1.

Aces: Mack 6, Gefroh and Sorenson 5, Bohl and Bosche 4, Thomas 3.

Blocks: Gefroh and Tripp 2, Sorenson and Thomas 1.

Digs: Thomas 48, Bosche 43, Sorenson 41, Bohl and Mack 20, Gefroh 7, Tripp 3.