Hawley Volleyball Exceeding Own Expectations Heading into State Tournament

First time Nuggets have made it to state

HAWLEY, Minn — For the first time in program history Hawley volleyball is heading to the Minnesota Class AA state tournament. The Nuggets clinched their spot by winning the 8AA Section Tournament and knocking off the top seed, Barnesville, in the semifinals.

When the team set their goals for the season players didn’t even picture making it this far. As the year went on, everyone just started clicking and their six seniors began to realize there could be something special at the end of this..

Going in the Nuggets know other peoples expectations of them are low and that’s something they’re feeding off of.

“Its a different atmosphere. There’s not a lot of pressure on us to do super well at state,” senior Faith Rustad said. “No matter how we practice how we do, we can give it our all and it’ll be good.”

“We can feel there is a lot more energy in the gym,” senior Madi Walker said. “Were just going to keep pushing harder and harder to keep going on the season and do our best for the community.”

“We’ll have to play harder than we ever had before. Fans will be yelling and we won’t be able to hear each other,” senior Ashlee Fletcher said. “Were going to need to step up our game because there will be six foot girls pounding balls at us. We’ll need to be able to react to that quickly and get use to it quickly instead of waiting a set or two to say oh my gosh they’re hitting it at us and we need to get it up.”

Hawley will play Cannon Falls in the first round Thursday at Excel Energy Center.