A trio of area girls basketball squads have darted out to successful starts this season.

Aberdeen Central, Aberdeen Roncalli, and Warner have made it through the first few weeks of the season unscathed with 6-0 records, but each has taken a different path to stay undefeated.

For Aberdeen Central, the success began before the season began, according to coach Mikayla Arechigo.

“A lot of these kids have been working hard for the last two seasons,” Arechigo said. “Haven’t really seen those results in the win-loss record, but just because they’ve stuck with it and kept focusing on making good progress, now we’re seeing the benefits of that even though it’s been a longer process than they sometimes realize it’s going to be.”

One of the Golden Eagles strengths this season has been their post play, which has been led by 6-foot sophomore Taryn Hermansen and 6-foot-1 freshman Lauryn Burckhard. The duo has been the strength in regards to scoring, as well as rebounding.

“I think a lot of that comes from our guards looking for our bigs. They just have a good connection and a good work ethic together,” Arechigo said. “Our rebounding has saved us a lot. We’ve had a lot of games where we’ve had an insane amount of turnovers and that’s a little bit frustrating, but I think by recovering on the rebounds, they’ve been able to overcome some of those turnovers.”

Central has not only had to overcome when it comes to rebounding, but also when it comes to injuries. The team has dealt with several setbacks due to injured players, which has opened up opportunities for others to get much needed minutes on the court.

“What’s great about this team is there have been a lot of opportunities for kids to get playing time and step up and show what they can do,” Arechigo said. “Right now, they’ve really been rising to the occasion.”

Aberdeen Roncalli has also risen to the occasion as the Cavaliers have been strong on both ends of the court this season.

“Naturally, we try to talk about and play on the defensive end first. I think that’s definitely been our strength,” Roncalli coach Derek Larson said. “Obviously, we’ve shot it really well in games. Against Webster, we hit 14 three’s that night. Every night is a little bit different, but I hope that we can make sure that we are consistent on the defensive end, and I’d say that’s definitely our strong suit.”

The Cavalier defense has definitely led the way this season, giving up just 29.2 points per game in the first six contests. Larson said there is much preparation that goes into the defensive gameplan before each contest.

“We like to figure out tendencies of teams and individual players, but more of it is just knowing the style and the way we want to play,” Larson said. “Making sure that we’re doing a good job of having ball pressure on guards, not making post entry passes easy, and things like that.”

Roncalli has also seen a balanced offense, with several players having the ability to score in double figures on any given night. Ava Hanson, Maddie Huber, and McKenna O’Keefe, among others, have led the team in scoring at times this season, which makes the Cavaliers difficult to stop.

“It seems like on any night, anyone can get hot and anyone can shoot it well,” Larson said. “We can stretch the floor a little bit because all five people on the floor can all shoot at the same time, which I think makes us difficult to guard.”

The Cavaliers have also had the privilege of playing their first five games in front of their home crowd at Roncalli Gym, which Larson said provides familiarity for the team.

“It’s nice to play in front of the home crowd, and I think that’s an added advantage for us too is just having that home crowd cheering us on every night has been big,” Larson said.

The Monarchs have recently climbed to a 6-0 record after defeating Groton Area 40-28 on Tuesday. While the team has been motivated throughout the early part of the season, the motivation began at the end of last season when Warner lost to Wall in the SoDak 16. The Eagles eventually went on to a runner-up finish at the Class B state tournament.

“I think it opened their eyes a little bit to just how good they really are,” Warner coach Tina Winter said of her players. “Everybody knows they’re an athletic bunch of kids, especially when it comes to volleyball, but I think last year really kind of opened their eyes to, hey, we’re actually a lot better at this than people give us credit for, so let’s go out and show them this year.”

Warner has shown just how good it can be as the team is outscoring its opponents by 15 points per game in the first six contests. Winter herself has been motivating her team all season, including after Tuesday’s win.

“I basically told them, guys from here on this week, we went up the mountain today and now we need to keep going up from this point,” Winter said. “This is our starting point now and if you guys pick up where we left off tonight, the season’s going to go our way.”

Warner will host Ipswich today, and no matter what the season holds for the Monarchs, Winter says she has a group of players that enjoy playing the game and playing for each other.

“The kids that I have right now, they like playing,” Winter said. “They enjoy playing together. They get along very well, personally and on the floor. It’s making my job a lot easier just letting them kind of go out and play their game.”

Central will travel to third-rated Sioux Falls Washington today, and Arechigo stressed the importance of not paying much attention to her team’s overall record going forward.

“I think it’s important not to get wrapped up just in our wins and losses,” Arechigo said. “One of our team goals is to progress throughout the season, and if we do that, that’s great. We can’t really get too high with our wins and too low or frustrated with our losses.”

Roncalli will face a stiff test on Friday as the Cavaliers host second-rated and fellow unbeaten foe Sisseton. Larson is putting an emphasis on making sure his team is ready to go, not only on Friday, but throughout the remainder of the season.

“(Sisseton) has been beating teams pretty bad throughout the year, so we’ll have to have our ducks in a row to make sure we’re in that game,” Larson said. “We have a bunch of really good teams on our schedule still. Our conference is tough; we’ll have to make sure that we’re ready for those types of games, and also some non-conference games. We have some tough ones coming down the stretch and we’ve got to make sure that we’re getting better everyday at practice. We don’t want to be satisfied with where we’re at.”