RAPID CITY – Warner enters the Class B State Volleyball Tournament playing some of its best volleyball of the season. The Monarchs (30-5) bring a 16-match winning streak into the state tournament. The surge started when Warner coach Kari Jung decided to make a rotation change about midway through the season.

“I think they have gotten better throughout the season. This year has been a fun year to watch them grow. I feel like our offense has gotten so much stronger from the start to now,” Jung said. “We weren’t performing where we thought we should be about midseason, and we made some changes with our offense and put people into a few different locations on the court and they just started hitting better.”

Not only did the Monarchs start hitting better with the change, they also started serving better. That has fueled Warner’s march into the state tourney.

“I think our serving has gotten better. Part of that I think was again with the change in rotation,” Jung said. “I put Ava (Nilsson) towards the front of the rotation and earlier in the season she was serving towards the end of the rotation. So she’s my second server now. She was probably four or five before where we had our rotation. She’s just progressively gotten better and Kami (Anderson) is a good leadoff for us with the way she’s been serving.”

Nilsson has collected 63 aces this season and Anderson 59. Kyra Marcuson leads the team in hitting with 326 kills, followed by Jennifer Aman with 300.

The Monarchs will take on Aberdeen Christian in the opening round, a team they defeated in the second match of the season.

Jung knows that the Knights present a challenge with their tall front row.

“We’re going to have to play well. We’re going to have to hit around their block and over their block and move the ball, so we can avoid the block,” Jung said. “I think our defense will be our defense, but offensively I think we’re going to have to be able to find some shots and find some holes that we can get around their block with, and run a quick offense so they can’t get there.”

The Monarchs are no strangers to state tourney success. They have won six state championships and finished runner-up five times, including last season.

Jung said her players just need to play their game over the next three days.

“If we can all be healthy and just get out there and play relaxed, and win the serve-serve receive battle,” Jung said, “that will help us a ton.”