Former Alexandria volleyball player Megan Langseth wrapped up quite a career as a member of the University of North Dakota volleyball team recently. 

Langseth, who will graduate academically in December of 2010 with a psychology degree, wrapped up her athletic career fourth on the Sioux’s all-time assists list. What makes that more impressive is that she came into the program not knowing if she would ever be a setter. 

She became the full-time starting setter her junior season and never looked back from there. Langseth racked up 2,952 assists, most of those coming in her final two years when she became just the fourth player in UND history to have back-to-back 1,000 assist seasons.

Langseth never imagined her career at UND would have turned out like it did. She led the Cardinals in kills as an outside hitter her senior year of high school. She served as a backup setter then and planned to do the same in college.

She also came into the program expecting to play Division II volleyball. Instead, she has been a part of the transition the Sioux are making to the Division I level. That meant some tougher competition overall and made for a more rigorous schedule. 

I will have a complete story in the Echo Press that comes out tomorrow, Tuesday, on Langseth’s career at UND. I talked to Megan and her head coach, Ashley Hardee, for the story. Hardee was very complimentary of the way his senior setter led the Sioux to one of its best seasons in school history this past year. 

"There was a ton of growth for Megan this year," he said. "Both mentally, running our offense, and athletically. Being a new coach and bringing in a new system that’s different, it’s certainly a challenge for anyone. She was very accepting of it and was fantastic all year. 

"She ran the show and the things that set her apart were some of the accomplishments of her teammates. There were four attackers on her team that got offensive player of the week honors throughout the year. That comes through her and her setting. That says a lot about her ability."

Check out the whole story in tomorrow’s print edition of the Echo Press.

I was excited to see the 2009-10 version of the Alexandria girls’ basketball team last night. 

The Cardinals have come into this season with a lot of expectations, both within their own locker room and from a number of ranking services across the state. I was curious to see how much they have grown from the 16-10 team that they were a year ago. 

If their win over Little Falls last night was any indication, the preseason expectations for this team are justified. Alexandria dominated the Flyers on Tuesday night, and they did it in a variety of ways.

The Cardinals’ defense is the main thing that stood out to me. Alexandria created 29 turnovers by putting constant pressure on the ball. That led to a lot of easy baskets in transition. 

The biggest advantage Alexandria had, and one I imagine the Cardinals will have on most nights, is their length. They have seven players on their roster listed at 5’9" or taller. That caused Little Falls fits last night. Along with the 29 turnovers, the Cardinals also had a number of balls that were deflected that kept the Flyers out of their offensive flow. 

Alexandria is able to throw a lot at teams both offensively and defensively because of its depth. That is one thing Wendy Kohler was really happy about coming into the season.

Angela Christianson is going to be a big-time scorer for them almost every night. At 6’0" she causes fits on both ends of the court for the opposition’s guards. On Tuesday night, Alli Haar consistently knocked down midrange jump shots on her way to 15 points. Gracie Bruzek also did a great job leading the break on her way to 11 points, five assists and four steals. 

All of that led to an easy win in the Cardinals’ first Central Lakes Conference game of the season. They will get a bigger test this Friday when they welcome Brainerd to town. Both teams expect to compete for the CLC championship. Alexandria looked like a team capable of doing that on Tuesday night.