Photo by Sam Thiel Minneota’s Abby Frie (left) and Abby Hennen (right) team up for a block during their match against MACCRAY on Monday. The Vikings defeated the Wolverines 3-0.

MINNEOTA — When it faced MACCRAY earlier in the season, the No. 3 Minneota volleyball team was able to earn a hard-fought 3-0 victory. The second go-around was just as much of a grind for the Vikings, but similar to their performance in September, they were able to hang tough en route to a sweep (25-22, 25-9, 25-20) and capture the Camden Conference Championship on Monday night.

Minneota coach Haley Fruin said they knew things weren’t going to come easy and that MACCRAY has continued to improve from their first meeting.

“We haven’t seen MACCRAY since early on this year and we knew that they were going to come out ready to go,” Fruin said. “We know that they’re a scrappy team and we got to see them a little bit at the Class A showcase and how much they’ve improved since the first time we played them. Not much has changed, they’re a good team.”

The Wolverines quickly showed that scrappiness early on in the opening set, grabbing a 4-2 lead before Minneota answered with a 14-4 run that was highlighted by an ace from Abby Hennen and a kill from Morgan Hennen late in the response to give the Vikings a 16-8 advantage.

MACCRAY would hang around, however, slowly cutting the deficit down to as many as two at 22-20, but the Vikings didn’t allow it to get any closer as they took Set 1, 25-22.

After a back-and-forth affair got things going to start, MACCRAY quickly earned the first point of Set 2 and was hoping to have the momentum tip in its favor. Minneota had other ideas, though, and Morgan Hennen would take control of the match. The senior went behind the service line and quickly dished out a trio aces to help the Vikings go on an 8-0 run and push all the momentum back on Minneota’s side of the court.

The Vikings offense continued to attack from all angles of the net throughout the rest of the frame, building a double-digit lead and an advantage as many as 16 at 20-4, before ultimately claiming the second set 25-9 and a commanding lead in the match.

Fruin said Morgan mixed up her serves well while staying aggressive to start the second set and felt their setters also did a nice job of finding their hitters.

“She was pushing the serves deep and then we would mix it up and go short a little bit; I thought she was serving a lot more aggressive than we did that first set, getting them out of system,” Fruin said. “And then of course on our side, I thought our setters did a great job of mixing the ball around and finding each hitter. That’s tough to defend when you’ve got a couple of hitters feeling strong in the front row.”

Minneota then rolled out to an early lead in Set 3, going up 8-4 and would hold onto its advantage throughout the majority of the frame. Just as they did in the first set, the Wolverines weren’t going to go down without a fight, as they battled their way back to make it a three-point margin at 22-19. But that was they closest MACCRAY got, with the Vikings slamming the door shut with a 25-20 third-set win to claim its second straight conference crown.

Abby Hennen, who led in kills on the night with 14, said their key was their ability to spread the ball to multiple hitters and keep the offense balanced all match.

“I thought just spreading the ball around,” she said. “I thought every outside hitter, middle and right side all got a good amount of attempts so that really helps because it’s not as easy to block then.”

Natalee Rolbiecki added nine kills while Morgan Hennen had six and Abby Frie chipped in five. Mckenna Yost led in set assists with 27.

On the defensive side, Rolbiecki led in digs with nine while Abby Hennen added seven and Ellie Pesch had three.

Minneota (26-3) will face Windom Area on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. As they get closer to the end of the regular season, Fruin said they need to continue to work on their serving as well as their serve-receive passing and blocking.

“I think we still need to work on our serving, just pushing that ball deep and then mixing up our serves, we’ve got to be a lot more aggressive behind that line. Serve-receive passing makes a difference when you can’t pass the ball and we need to get better at that,” Fruin said. “And blocking, I really thought they used our block a lot and they could hit off of us and they scored a few points that way, so those three things we’ll be focusing on a lot this next week.”

Minneota 3, MACCRAY 0

MACCRAY 22 9 20

Minneota 25 25 25

Serving (Ace): Minneota (M. Hennen 15-16 (3); A. Hennen 10-11 (2); Yost 19-19 (1)).

Kills: Minneota (A. Hennen 14; Rolbiecki 9; M. Hennen 6; Frie 5).

Set Assists: Minneota (Yost 27; Stassen 8).

Digs: Minneota (Rolbiecki 9; A. Hennen 7; Pesch 3).

Blocks: Minneota (Rost, Yost, Rolbiecki, Frie, M. Hennen 1).