Any time Mandy Vastag hammers down a kill, the Fargo Oak Grove middle hitter usually lets out a scream to relish the moment.
She was probably hoarse at the end of the night Thursday at Gorder Gymnasium.
Vastag smashed 16 kills and added five blocks to lead the Grovers to a 3-1 victory against Central Cass in North Dakota Class B, District 2 volleyball.
The scores were 25-16, 25-22, 14-25 and 25-11.
"That's so fun," Vastag said of her monster kills. "It all starts with our passing and Hannah (Erickson) does a great job setting."
ADVERTISEMENT
Oak Grove (11-7, 5-0 District 2) handed the Squirrels (6-3,4-1) their first district loss. The Grovers are the only unbeaten team in District 2 play.
"The girls came out and played with a lot more aggressiveness and enthusiasm than we've had in a few matches," Oak Grove coach Randy Papachek said. "It was nice to see they were having fun."
Vastag was at her best in Game 4, finishing off 10 points with either kills or blocks. The 6-foot-1 senior proved to be a disruptive force for most of the match.
"Mandy shut us down in the middle," Central Cass coach Stansbery said. "She played a great game."
The Grovers jumped to a 9-3 lead in Game 1, a 5-2 lead in Game 2 and an 8-1 lead in Game 4.
Oak Grove senior hitters Alex Aarestad and Laura Barnhart also caused problems for the Squirrels.
Aarestad had 12 kills, while Barnhart added seven.
Barnhart sparked the Grovers at the start of Game 2, scoring four of Oak Grove's first five points.
ADVERTISEMENT
She had three aces and one kill in that run.
"It was the total team," Papachek said.
"It was important because Central Cass is one of our rivals," said Vastag, whose team was swept 3-0 at Oakes earlier this week. "We wanted to play a lot better than we played at Oakes. We wanted to prove ourselves again."
Stansbery said the Squirrels have areas of their game that need work.
"We need to go back and work on defense for about 10 hours," Stansbery said. "We just weren't covering a lot of things and weren't getting our blocks set up."
CENTRAL CASS (kills-blocks-aces): Martin 9-0-2, Springer 8-0-0, Hagen 8-1-0 (13 digs), Hagemeister 2-0-0, Ueland 3-0-0 (23 assists), Hejl 0-0-2, Samuelson 0-1-0.
OAK GROVE: Aarestad 12-1-1, Vastag 16-5-0, Erickson 1-1-2 (29 assists), Whartnaby 1-2-0, Quick 3-0-1, Barnhart 7-0-2, Stinar 0-0-2.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Eric Peterson at (701) 241-5513
