Fosston Volleyball is Heading Back to the State Tournament

In the early 2000s Fosston Volleyball was a dynasty, making it to the state championship game four times in five years, and winning it three times. But since 2004, the Greyhounds have been spectators at the state tournament, but that’s changing this week as Fosston is headed down to St. Paul to try and make some noise. 

As they Fosston volleyball team began the season, they knew that this year’s team might be the one to end the drought and make it back to the state tournament.

“It was going to be our dream team,” says senior libero Naomi Swanson. “We were so excited to play with them, we’ve been playing with them since we were so young.”

They made it there with a dominating performance in the Section 8A championship game, sweeping defending section champs Ada Borup.

“It was nice to see the girls have a good playoff run and really go after it and [they] definitely overcame some nerves and some different things like that to really play their best game,” says head coach Sarah Dryburgh.

It’s a well-balanced, experienced team for the Greyhounds that features 3 seniors and 5 juniors. 

“We have some very big blockers on our team,” says senior middle blocker Brianna Vig. “And serving, we have a lot of ace servers on our team this year, as well.”

Offensively, a diverse attack has powered Fosston, with five different players recording at least 100 kills this year, and 3 totaling over 200.

“I think we have a lot of great hitters, most teams don’t have as many as we do, and I think we’ve known that from the start,” says Swanson.

“We can really utilize a lot of players in the front row,” says Dryburgh. “So if one girl is on one night…we have another girl who steps up the next night.”

The volleyball team has been the talk of the town lately, and with the district canceling school on Thursday and Friday, expect a large contingent making the trip to support the team. 

“That’s basically all the school has been talking about, all the teachers are talking about the big game on Friday and how excited they are to be able to get down there,” says Vig. “There are a lot of people going down there to watch us.”

The Greyhounds earned the 5th seed in the tournament and will take on 4th seeded Mounds Park, who is making their first-ever trip to state.

“I think the girls kind of take care of business on their side of the court, we want to serve aggressive,” says Dryburgh. “I think that our girls can definitely compete down there and do a nice job and that’s kind of our goal.”