Hermantown volleyball coach Jessica Williams believes her young team is beginning to click.
“As a team we are coming together nicely,” Williams said. “Still young and inexperienced, but I’m confident by playoffs we will have it all together.”
The Hawks have shown flashes through the first three weeks of the season, opening with a straight-sets win over Duluth Marshall on Aug. 21. Hermantown swept 25-17, 25-15, 25-23 behind nine kills and five aces from sophomore Lilah Conley, 16 assists from setter Anna Bergerson and 22 digs from libero Reese Lukovsky.
Hermantown followed by outlasting Esko in five sets on Aug. 26 before dropping four straight matches — a sweep at Princeton on Aug. 28, a four-set loss to Duluth East on Sept. 2, another four-set defeat to Proctor two days later and a 3-1 loss to Greenway on Sept. 9.
The Hawks rebounded Sept. 11 with a sweep of Hibbing, improving to 3-4 overall and 1-1 in the Lake Superior Conference.
Hermantown defeated Superior 3-0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-17) on Tuesday night.
Williams said she’s eager to see how her team stacks up against Denfeld on Thursday.
The Hawks also have Sept. 30 circled for their matchup with Grand Rapids, and Oct. 14 against Cloquet.
“We always look forward to playing Grand Rapids,” Williams said. “That will be our Dig Pink night and it was a huge success last year.”
Hermantown has leaned on senior captain Ashlee Pruse at right side and a core of sophomores — Bergerson, Kylee Stokke, Audra Schott and Conley — who are settling in at the varsity level.
“Our sophomores are doing a really great job playing at the varsity level and stepping up to play competitively,” Williams said.
Lukovsky, a junior, has been steady at libero.
“Reese has been leading the team by her passing and confidence,” Williams said, who added that Kadyn Kimpling, sidelined by a concussion, is “just as great as Reese.”
Williams said the wins and losses matter less right now than her players' progress each week.
QUOTE ME
Hermantown girls tennis coach Jessica Worden on her 2025 team: "We are fully loaded with matches these last two week of the regular season with four matches every week. We are facing a lot of local conference teams toward the end so we are excited to compete close and earn some more team victories. Alee DeVliger and Nevie Homic are performing hot at Nos. 3 and 4 singles and are tied with the most singles victories for the team Chloe Gustafson and Jillian Ritsche, who raised their game level against Superior and closed out their match by after leading 4 -3, raced to win the next 8 of 10 games and won 6-4, 6-2."
