By Andy Buckner
There are no sure things in the world of sports, but ever since head coach Sarah Attig was hired to lead Jordan High School’s volleyball program four years ago, she has had plenty of reasons to be confident that the 2025 season would be a success.
Speaking of the juniors and seniors who make up the vast majority of the team’s roster this year, Attig said, “A lot of these girls were on Varsity and Junior Varsity as freshmen, so I kind of had my eye on them.” Attig had been told of the potential talent waiting in the wings with the classes of 2026 and 2027 when she started coaching the program in 2022. “Pretty much every year up to this point—as much as you want to be successful, you also have to be realistic—they were building up to this point.”
After four years of strong investment by Attig and her coaching staff, this year’s Jaguars volleyball team has had a season for the ages. They won all but three of their 26 games—the only blemishes on their record being in-season tournament losses to Spring Lake Park and Mound Westonka, as well as a close regular-season loss to Delano, the No. 2 ranked team in Minnesota’s Class AAA. As a result of their dominance, the Jaguars rank six spots below Delano in those same rankings, at No. 8.
“The mentality right now with the girls on this team is that we’re not going to lose,” Attig said. That confidence has been justified by contributions from an extremely athletic—and, importantly, tall—group of players, highlighted by seniors Addison Runge, Lauren Weber, Avery Bahn, Sofie Fritzke, and Morgan Staloch. Most, if not all, of those players are on the court at any given moment. Also making significant contributions from the senior class are Lucy Mehrkens, Micah Winters, Mikayla Plath, and Bella Klein. It is a loaded class that has left Attig with an abundance of riches.
“Every girl that we give a varsity jersey to has a reason we gave them that jersey,” Attig said. “Part of the reason we are so good this year is because our non-starters are about as good as you can get without being a starter.”
Contributing alongside the senior class are juniors Chloe Stensland, Molly Church, Hannah White, and the team’s libero Kendall Dahlen. Dahlen, in particular, has helped the team bring out the best in themselves. The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee commit has worked hard to maximize her potential as a player and team leader, handling her unique position with aplomb.
“She has really come out and learned and matured—not just as a person, but as a player,” Attig said of Dahlen. “She is in control of everything that goes on out there. She’s a talker. I think she had a great offseason and worked a lot on that mental aspect of the game. Now, she’s rock-solid.”
The Jaguars have had plenty to smile about this year, but even when they’ve found themselves in a hole, they’ve maintained an obvious positivity. The girls wear smiles on their faces before, during, and after each contest. Even mid-volley and in the aftermath of the occasional mistake, players are seen laughing and cheering one another on. It is both a contributor to—and a byproduct of—their confidence.
“It’s just a group of girls that know each other very well. They trust each other, and they play well together,” Attig said of the team’s positivity.
While winning as much as the Jaguars have can mitigate adversity, their ability to handle choppy waters was tested at the end of the regular season when Morgan Staloch was ruled out due to injury. While the team suffered a brief identity crisis at the beginning of their first game without her against Hutchinson, they quickly found their footing and swept their opponent.
“At first it was pretty frightening, but her sister, freshman Jordan Staloch, came up and played amazing in her spot, and truly everybody else just turned it on,” Attig said of the adversity. Since that victory over Hutchinson, the Jaguars have had no problem navigating the end of the regular season without their senior standout and received great news when they learned she would be ready to return for the playoffs.
“They get into precarious situations sometimes,” Attig noted of her team, “but they always just pull it out in the end.”
Their mettle will certainly be tested as they head into section playoffs. They will be playing in arguably the strongest section in Minnesota’s Class AAA, featuring three other top-10 teams—Delano, Academy of Holy Angels, and Benilde-St. Margaret’s. Sharing their section with those volleyball juggernauts means that Jordan will have to settle for the fourth seed in Section 6AAA—just high enough to guarantee home-court advantage for their first game against Mound Westonka on Wednesday, October 22.
As stiff as the competition will be going forward, Attig and her players have every confidence in their ability to bring the program back to the state tournament for the first time since 2011. While some programs try to shy away from setting expectations too high, there has been no sugarcoating what this team is capable of within the locker room.
“I did tell these girls early on, ‘I have never come to a group of girls before and mentioned the state tournament, but this is a team that I feel could be contenders to go to state,’” Attig said regarding how the expectations were set early on. “We talked about it and what that meant. It’s been a vision. We know what’s out there, we know what’s possible. We also know we have some big games ahead.”
Those big games start this coming Wednesday, when the Jaguars host Mound Westonka. It’s not a sure thing that the Jaguars can reach their sky-high ceiling, but four years ago there were plenty of signs that this would be a special season—and the potential has turned into reality every step of the way so far.
No matter what their ultimate fate proves to be, there’s no doubt this is an impressive team to watch. There will be plenty of energy and excitement in the air when Jordan fans see this team play in some of the most important fall sports action to take place at the Jordan High School gym in years.
The Jaguars host Mound Westonka on Wednesday, October 22, at 7:00 p.m. at Jordan High School. For more information on the girls’ volleyball postseason, visit MSHSL.org/tournament.