By Rich Winter 

605 Sports

WINNER — Winner’s road to the Class A state volleyball tournament began early this summer. 

Before the first open gym of the year the players reached out to Winner coach Jaime Keiser asking if open gym for volleyball could be moved to Tuesday instead of the regularly scheduled Thursday’s because of a conflict in schedule with a basketball camp.

“It was from day one in the first week of June that the girls took ownership of their season,” Keiser said. “If it was me that asked them to move the dates of open gym they wouldn’t have been as serious. They told me they were going to put in so much work and that the goal was to make the state tournament.”

All summer long Keiser said the girls worked their butts off with many open gyms and worked on fundamentals and teamwork in an effort to improve. Weighing heavily on the minds of the six Winner seniors was the notion that despite success in high school the seniors had never been on a team that qualified for a state tournament. 

“We’ve had some rebuilding years,” Winner senior Keelie Kuil said. “The seniors have been working to go to state for four years and we put a lot of time in this summer to make that goal a reality.”

Midway through Tuesday’s SoDak 16 state qualifier against Mobridge-Pollock the state tournament dream was slipping away. Winner claimed the first set 25-23 but played poorly and lost the second set 25-12. The Warriors dropped the third set 25-21 and found themselves trailing midway through what could have been the decisive fourth set. 

And then, a seed that coach Keiser planted in the locker room prior to the start of the season reminded the Winner girls that quitting was not an option. 

“Quite a few years ago on one of the state qualifying teams I bought this sign that said 212 degrees,” Keiser said. “There was a video with the sign that explained what happens with water at 212 degrees. At 211 degrees water doesn’t do much but with one degree more you have the power to run a steam engine.”

The '212' sign that Winner coach Jaime Keiser posted in the Winner volleyball locker room this fall - (Photo courtesy of Betsy Watzel)

Keiser posted the ‘212’ sign in the locker room before the season started and for much of the year the girls shook their heads and wondered what the sign was for. Keiser said it almost became a joke as the girls made fun of her and the sign. 

“I always wanted to play this DVD but I could never find a DVD player and never had the opportunity to show it to them,” she said. 

As the team was getting ready to leave for Fort Pierre on Tuesday, the long-time Winner coach remembered the bus had a DVD player.

Trailing two sets to one and down in the fourth set Kuil said Keiser reminded the team of the video and that giving a little extra can make a difference. 

“Before the game we had this hype video and it showed us that in order for us to win this game we needed to go that one extra degree,” she said. “At the end of the fourth set coach was like this is where we bring that extra degree and we were like, ‘Yep we’re doing it and at that point I was like we are winning this.’ ”

Winner came back to win the fourth set 25-20 and in one of the last timeouts in a back-and-forth fifth set Keiser implored the girls to give just a little bit more. 

“When it came down to it going into the fourth set we said there is no tomorrow,” Keiser said. “And then we said the same thing in the fifth set.”

A 17-15 fifth set win sends the Warriors to their first Class A state volleyball tournament since 2020, a feat senior Cora Moss has been dreaming about for a long time.

“I think it was our huddles and being a team together,” Moss said. “In my whole high school volleyball career I’ve always wanted to make it to the state tournament and so just finally making it is almost like a relief. It's so exciting and I can’t thank the team enough for coming together and doing what we needed to do.” 

Winner (26-6) earned the No. 6 seed for next week’s Class A state tournament and will play No. 3 seed Dell Rapids (29-3) in the opening round. Keiser gave credit to her team that dug deep to earn Tuesday’s SoDak 16 win. 

“I’m extremely proud of them,” she said. “As a coach you can say a lot of things about Xs and Os but you cannot teach heart or desire or even the want to win and that’s what makes this year’s team so special.”

On Tuesday the Winner girls came from behind to defeat Mobridge-Pollock in a five-set thriller that sent the Warriors to the Class A state tournament for the first time since 2020 - (Photo courtesy of Betsy Watzel)