Volleyball: YME Sting get back their head coach

Aug. 28—GRANITE FALLS — A familiar face returns to the sideline for the Yellow Medicine East volleyball team this fall.

Holly Johnson-Partington, who coached the Sting in the early 2000s, is back at the helm to replace former head coach Arei Stokes. This will be her seventh season in total as head coach at YME, which is looking to improve on its 6-19 record from 2025. Her assistant coaches are Cortney Lange and Aimee Johnson.

"People ask me, 'Why did you come back to coaching?' I came back because I want to make a difference in these girls' lives," Johnson-Partington said. "Teams are always judged by their wins and losses. So hey, we might not get 'W's' every night on the court. But I want to teach them how to get 'W's' off the court by teaching them how to be honest, respectful, accountable, on time, diligent to a hard day's work, learn to cope with constructive criticism and truly understand the meaning of a team and having each other's backs on and off the court."

The Sting have three starters to replace in setter Lexi Stengel, middle blocker Alana Almich and outside hitter Bayli Sneller.

YME's returning starters are all at the net. There's 5-foot-4 senior setter Kourtney Peterson, 6-0 junior middle blocker Abbey Bones and 6-0 junior outside hitter Bailey Mortenson. Peterson is moving from her defensive specialist position last season to setter.

"I'm excited to have Abbey, Kourtney and Bailey as three really strong, key players this year," Johnson-Partington said. "These three girls work really hard and know how to execute. They will be good leaders on our team."

Joining that trio at the net is senior middle blocker Hanna Bjorndal. Another senior, London Dormaine, is slotted as a defensive specialist. Filling in at libero/defensive specialist is freshman Kresley Enninga.

"Hanna will work on being more aggressive at the net and more vocal as a leader," Johnson-Partington said. "London is my firecracker; she always seems to keep the team's spirits high and keeps a great attitude. Kresley is young ... I'm very impressed with her never-die attitude and her great back-row defensive skills."

Johnson-Partington added, "Watch for YME to be scrappy defensively and aggressive at the net. We have a lot of young girls but we will have a lot of depth on the bench that I hope will allow us to make some changes during games."