Bearcats take second in ABW tourney

By Editor | September 20, 2025 |

By Coach Tina Turn
The varsity KCC volleyball team attends three Saturday tournaments every season. The first weekend tourney the Bearcats attended was hosted by Ada-Borup West on Saturday, Sept. 6. This is always a competitive event with both AA and A teams in attendance.
Our pool play competitors were Underwood, Win-E-Mac and East Grand Forks.
KCC 2 – Underwood 0
The Bearcats were alive and alert in the first set against Underwood as KCC went on to an easy 25-13 win. Underwood woke up in the second set and played much better defense. Their improvement, plus the Bearcats adding more errors to the mix, ended in a win for the Cats but a close win of 25-22. The most exciting part of the match was when senior setter, Afton Lindgren, on a set to fellow senior Kaydence White, connected for her 1,000th career assist. Congratulations to Afton on becoming the eighth setter in program history to hit the milestone.
KCC 2 – WEM 0
Next up for the Bearcats was the Patriots out of Win-E-Mac (WEM). A balanced attack helped the Bearcats to a 25-12 first set win, while in set two White took full charge at the net and had 9 kills to help her team to a 25-17 win and a second pool-play match victory.
KCC 2 – Greenwave 1
The third pool play match-up was a big game for the Bearcats as they lost to the East Grand Forks Greenwave just two nights before. KCC was looking to avenge that loss, and they had to battle hard to do so. Tough serving and strong passing characterized the match. Those factors helped KCC win in three sets with scores 25-20, 16-25, and 16-14. It’s always exciting to get an extra-point win, and what made it sweeter was that Afton Lindgren put an exclamation mark on the game with an ace serve for the final point.
KCC 2 – Nevis 0
Having beat every team in their pool, the Bearcats earned the top seed which put them in the red division (which is the equivalent of the gold division in most tournaments). Their first match-up was with another team that won their pool, the Nevis Tigers. KCC came out of the gates on fire and marched to an easy 25-7 win. In set two, the Tigers provided more of an offense, but the Bearcats held them off to win with a close 25-23 score. KCC had their most blocks of the day, at 4, against Nevis, and that stat really helped to stifle the Tigers and keep the Bearcats on top.
KCC 1 – DGF 2
With a win over Nevis, KCC advanced to the championship game where they took on the AA Rebels of Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (DGF). DGF played in the Section 8AA championship match last year, where they lost a tough battle to Hawley, who went on to win state in 2024. Many of those same DGF players were back, and so the Bearcats knew they would have to bring their A-game to compete against such a seasoned, solid team.
The Bearcats had 13 kills out of the gates in set one, which really made the Rebel defense scramble and which helped KCC to a 25-19 win. Only recording 5 kills in set two meant that the Rebels’ front row and back row defense really ramped up and effectively shut down the Bearcats. The second set win went to the Rebels 25-14. In the deciding set, DGF was ahead 9-14 when junior Brynn Hennen stepped to the serving line. She rattled off 3 incredible serves that kept the Rebels out of system and led to Bearcat points. A missed serve ended the game 13-15 in favor of DGF. KCC committed only 3 errors in the set. It was such a fantastic match, exemplified by teams who could earn their points rather than get points on opponent errors.
The Bearcats can be really proud of their performance in the ABW tournament. Out of 16 teams, they placed second and ended the day with a 4 and 1 record, which moved their season record to 5 wins and 3 losses.
At this early juncture in the season, the team is still trying to find their groove and learn how to play together. KCC’s passing on the day steadily improved, and the Bearcats can be happy with the strides they have made in this area from the first week of the season.
We are tending to make too many hitting errors, which is forcing the team hitting efficiency to be much lower than their goal. This, plus blocking with more intention, will be our primary focus in the upcoming practice sessions.
The Bearcats have four regular-season matches before their next Saturday tournament in Burnsville on Friday, Sept. 19 and Saturday, Sept. 20.