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CLASS A VOLLEYBALL: Vikings adapted to new roles when key player went down

Photo by Sam Thiel Minneota's Lydia Sussner tips the ball over the net during their Class A Tournament match against Ada-Borup/West on Friday.

ST. PAUL – The Minneota volleyball team hadn’t lost an opening set all season. So when the Vikings found themselves on the opposite end of a 25-23 Set 1 loss to Ada-Borup/West in Friday’s Class A semifinals, Minneota began to feel a little adversity.

That adversity was felt even greater when senior outside hitter Lizzy Gillingham exited in the opening set with what appeared to be an ankle injury.

“A girl on the other team, her feet came under the net and I landed on it,” Gillingham said. “It was kind of really swollen at first but there was a guy back there who taped it up really tight and I was good to go.”

Looking to her bench, Vikings coach Hayley Fruin relied on a variety of different players and used various rotations while Gillingham was in the locker room and on the bench.

Fruin said they have confidence with whichever player they put on the court and it was great to see the support level from both the players and fans at a high level.

“Give a lot of credit to the five girls that were left out on the court. They have confidence in anybody that comes in and it’s not an easy situation, of course it’s the state tournament and you’re going in the second set in the middle of a game,” Fruin said. “Rachel Vlaminck was the first to go in and they gave her a lot of confidence and cheering her on and the fans and it’s just nice to see our whole team and our whole town just sticks together and they all support each other.”

Gillingham would return midway through Set 3, much to the approval of the Minneota faithful. Fruin said Gillingham’s injury was a significant loss to their offense but knew her toughness would prevail and that she would fight through it.

“Lizzy’s a six-rotation player, so of course with her going out is a big loss to our team,” Fruin said. “She’s a kid that’ll fight and come back in and nobody was going to tell her that she wasn’t going to go back in and that’s great to see.”

Fruin added they wanted to make sure Gillingham got some rest on the bench when the Vikings had a comfortable lead and that’s where players such as Natalee Rolbiecki and Ellie Pesch came in. Rolbiecki finished the match with 13 kills and 11 digs while Pesch had 10 digs and a service ace.

“Give Natalee credit because then we kind of reversed their roles,” Fruin said. “Nat played six rotations all the way around and then Ellie Pesch went in for Lizzy to give her a break and rest her ankle.”

Rolbiecki said they knew everybody had to step up and do their part.

“I think we all had to step up a little bit and I think everybody did a great job of stepping into their roles,” she said.

Multiple Viking players saw playing time in roles they weren’t accustomed to. Lydia Sussner, who spends the majority of her time up front attacking or blocking, played some rallies in the back row and even did some serving.

“Abby Rost usually serves for her but we didn’t know how Lizzy would do with her ankle, so we had to rest and wait on Abby because of course if she serves for Lydia she can’t go up front for Lizzy,” Fruin said. “Lydia stepped up to the challenge; I think she even had a couple of aces out there and a couple of nice ups.”

Also thrown into a different role on the court was Morgan Hennen. The junior outside hitter

Fruin said both her and Morgan Kockelman worked well in opening plays up for each other and it was a difference maker, especially in the final three sets.

“I think Morgan Kockelman did a great job of working the middle on the other side of the net and kind of opening things up for the right side and the outside,” Fruin said. “Give Morgan Hennen credit, they were kind of banking on her and she put a lot of balls away which really helped our outsides out.”

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