That new-found energy led to a new-found confidence which gave the Chargers a four-set win in a nonconference volleyball season opener with the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers at Storm Fieldhouse. The Chargers won 25-27, 25-16, 25-9, 25-21.

Olivia Hammer led the Chargers to a 1-0 start on the season with 17 kills. The junior hitter also added nine digs and two aces.

“I was happy with my performance, but I’m more happy with my team’s performance just because we’ve been working so hard on this,” Hammer said. “The only way I’m going to get a good hit is if my team has a good pass and a good set. That wasn’t my game, it was our game.”

Sharing in the victory credit for MVL was fellow junior hitter Jenna Bates, who had 10 kills, 12 digs and three aces.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Olivia Hammer celebrates a point during a nonconference volleyball match against Blue Earth Area on Friday evening at Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School.

The Chargers got some new faces involved also on Friday, including a pair of young setters. Sophomore setter Nora Krueger had 16 set assists, 11 digs and six aces, while freshman setter Graysie Black had 15 set assists and four aces.

Sophomore defensive specialist Taryn Gunderson led MVL with 14 digs, while junior Ellie Kaesermann had six kills and sophomore Alexis DeVos had four kills, one being the match-ender.

Full of energy during her first varsity match, DeVos said getting the final kill was exciting and she was thankful her teammates set her up for it.

“I’m very thankful for my team,” she said. “When you get down, you have your team up there to make sure if I do mess up, then I know that they’ve got my back. And it gives me more power and confidence to go at it.”

The Chargers were rarely down after the first set, which was the most competitive set during the evening. MVL trailed 4-0 to start the set but tied it at 9-all thanks in large part due to back-to-back ace serves from Black.

Krueger had her time to shine on the serve moments later as she had three aces in a row to give MVL a 16-14 lead. After a Hammer kill had MVL up 20-17 and prompted a BEA timeout, the Bucs readjusted and took the lead late, 25-24, on an ace serve from Taylor Ripley.

Bates had a big spike to tie it back up after that, but back-to-back points by the Bucs won them the opening set.

Set 2 saw the Chargers fall behind early on again, 5-1, but the Chargers came to life in the middle of the set and took a 21-13 lead after an 8-0 run.

“In the second set, as soon as we saw that if we can make sure that pass is in system, we can get our offense going,” MVL head coach Johanna Kelly said. “We were getting kill after kill on the outside, our right sides got some good looks and that really built our confidence and the momentum kind of swung in our favor for Sets 2 and 3.”

MVL had a couple of errors after that run, but it closed out the set on a kill from Bates and a kill from DeVos.

Set 3 was all Chargers as they took a 15-1 lead following a 12-0 run. Marley Schauer, one of four seniors for MVL, finished that run with a kill. The Chargers ended the set on a kill from Bates.

The Bucs again had a quick lead in Set 4, eventually taking an 11-6 lead after a 5-0 run was capped off on a kill from Hailey Hanson. But a timeout by Kelly was just what the Chargers needed to get their energy back as they went on a 5-0 run out of the timeout to tie the set.

The Bucs took the lead back after that, but it was brief as a 4-0 run put the Chargers in front 19-16. The Chargers extended their lead to 23-18 after a kill by sophomore Tori Ringen, and the Chargers put an end to things after DeVos collected her second set-ending kill of the day.

“I’m very excited and I am very happy for my team because I knew we could come back to win,” DeVos said. “We’re more than capable of doing so.”

After a tough 2024 season where the Chargers went 3-20-2, Hammer expects to see an improved season as she enters her third year of varsity play.

“I definitely think it [can be] more of a turnaround,” Hammer said. “Most of us have played varsity before and our setters are really good, props to them because they’re sophomores and freshmen. They’re just being thrown in, but they’re doing so good and I’m so proud of them for that. I feel like as a junior, an upperclassmen … I have to lead and show them that I trust them and that I’m not just like, ‘Oh, yeah, you’re a freshman, you can’t do this.’ I have full trust.”

MVL (1-0) is at Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s for another nonconference matchup on Tuesday night.