MILESTONE MAKERS

A pair of Wessington Springs High School seniors reached two special milestones in the Hansen Early Bird Volleyball Tournament’s first game vs. AC/DC: 2,000 career assists for Alyssa Grohs and 1,000 career digs for Raylee Fagerhaug.

“It was really cool to start the year reaching 2,000 assists,” said Grohs, who reached the 1000-dig milestone in October 2022 and the 1000-assist milestone in October 2021. “It shows that consistent, hard work really does pay off.”

But Grohs is quick to point out it’s an all around team effort, “If your passers don’t get a good pass, it’s hard for me to set. It’s important everyone on our team does well.”

Grohs and Fagerhaug have played volleyball together since 5th grade and the connection and chemistry is evident on the court.

“It’s neat it happened on the same night at the same game,” Fagerhaug shared. “The whole team knew Alyssa needed four and I needed 11.”

The student athletes joked and laughed when they explained a plan to coordinate Fagerhaug’s 1,000th dig to Grohs’ 2,000th assist. Although it didn’t play out that way, the young women and entire team are energized to kick the season off with these accolades.

“It’s exciting and pretty cool to be recognized. It’s not something everyone can say they’ve been able to do,” Fagerhaug added.

Head Coach Lynn Damm explained that career stats begin when a player enters varsity level.

“Even state qualifying teams have just a handful of players reach those milestones. Both Raylee and Alyssa have a lot of experience playing at the varsity level,” Damm explained. These two and many others on the team have pretty high stat numbers.”

At the tournament, the Spartans landed 6th place winning one match and losing two. On the heels of a successful 2022 season, Damm said she looks forward to a really good season.

“Seeing how this team got into it and kept track as Alyssa and Raylee got closer to their individual milestones was special. This group is special, they truly celebrate each others success,” Damm said.