On the Bench with Byron Higgin

She may have a state championship under her belt as a player — and another as a coach, but Minneota Volleyball Coach Hayley Fruin is not resting on her accomplishments.

She has her Minneota Vikings back in the thick of another state tournament appearance and perhaps a title and she’s not letting up much. After beating MACCRAY, 3-0 to win the Camden Conference showdown of North and South champions, Fruin promised to have her troops back in practice the next day working on their serving. “We need to work on our serves. We need to be more aggressive behind the (serving) line,” she said.

She’d seen a hole, or maybe a “ripple” in Minneota’s serving and she wasn’t about to let it go unnoticed. The coach isn’t one to make excuses, and when it was suggested a couple of letdowns may have been made Monday after a grueling weekend tournament, she simply said, “No excuses. We have to push through the grind.”

That grind, by-the-way, also included playing a sixth match in the past six days at Windom. There was also a hint from the coach that her team wasn’t at all happy with themselves after losing to New Prague (a Class AAA large school) in the Eastview Tournament last weekend.

“We wanted to be in the championship,” said the coach. Instead, they beat Eastview and finished third. But they should take consolation from the fact they beat Southwest Christian, the No. 6-ranked team in Class AA, just two days after Southwest Christian beat Mayer Lutheran, the Class A’s No. 1-ranked team, 3-0.

“You tell them that,” Fruin said. So, I’m telling you Vikings. Buck up! You beat a great team in Southwest Christian. You’re still the state champs — and you’ve got a real good chance for a repeat.

Go for it!