“That’s a pretty big confidence booster, state wise or any tournament,” Anderson said. “Seeding doesn’t matter. You wrestle your match and one match at a time and you look at just the girl in front of you.” 

A lifelong basketball player, Anderson changed course two years ago with a phone call to her father Matt saying she wanted to give wrestling a try. Matt Anderson encouraged his daughter to wrestle but told her if she tried it she would need to stick with it for at least a year. 

Anderson wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with wrestling, often rolling around in the Anderson family home with her younger brothers. 

“My brothers wrestled and I’ve been around it my entire life,” she said. “After girls wrestling started I figured that I might as well try it. I like that it’s an individual sport.” 

By all accounts Anderson had a successful first season a year ago. The then eighth-grader finished 17-12, qualifying for the state tournament but lost her two matches. Anderson entered Jan. 11’s Mid-Dakota Monster Bride of the Monster with a 16-4 record and ranked No. 5 (120). 

After dropping to 114, Anderson left the Bride of the Monster tournament with a 20-4 record while ascending to No. 3 in the latest Dakota Grappler rankings. Matt Anderson joined the Sisseton team as an assistant coach last season and said his daughter is improving every time she steps on the mat. 

“She did well last year but she lacked confidence and didn’t have the natural knack for it,” he said. “It took some experience and what we are seeing this year is a confidence thing more than anything.” 

The 8-0 win over Rogers in the semifinals of Jan. 11’s tournament was a bit surprising for even Anderson. The week before Anderson lost to Rogers in overtime in the semifinals of another tournament. 

“Going into the monster I figured it would be a tough match,” Vi Anderson said. “I stuck to what I’ve been practicing and stuck to my skills and reminded myself to always be in good positions. After that match I was surprised with myself but if you stay in practice and work on your technique good things will happen.” 

Tournaments the caliber of the Bride of the Monster don’t come up often on the Sisseton schedule and Anderson relished the opportunity to test her improved abilities against a quality field. 

“Seeing good competition is a big part of wrestling,” Vi Anderson said. “If you only wrestle less talented girls how will you get better and I like the bigger tournaments because you get to see girls that you normally don’t see.” 

Matt Anderson said a year ago his daughter could not have won a tournament of the magnitude of the Bride of the Monster. As the calendar hit mid-January he said he saw a light come on. 

“The effort she is giving in practice and in tournaments is showing that all the hard work is paying off,” he said. “She’s firing off and hitting shots and that’s a big confidence going into the latter part of the season.”