Photo by Jake Przytarski Marshall’s Jordyn Hilgemann goes up for a kill during their Section 3AA tournament game against Worthington on Thursday. The Tigers won 3-0.

MARSHALL – The top-seeded Marshall volleyball team opened up Section 3AA tournament play on Thursday with a convincing straight sets win over No. 8 seed Worthington to advance to the quarterfinals.

According to Marshall coach Dan Westby, the Tigers were able to shake off some early mistakes in set one that allowed them to get back into their rhythm for the remainder of the match.

“We had a couple of errors early on, but after we settled in a little bit I thought we kind of took care of business,” said Westby.

Westby added that the team’s strong display of passing loomed large in their success.

“I thought our passing was pretty good overall and certainly we feel like that’s a skill that we rely on and spend a lot of time on in practice. I thought we handled the ball well and took care of things on our side of the net,” said Westby.

In the opening set, the Trojans took advantage of Marshall’s early mistakes to take its only lead of the match at 2-1. The Tigers would quickly brush off the slow start with a 14-2 run highlighted by three aces by Emily Meier. With a comfortable 15-4 lead in hand, the Tigers went on to cruise to a 25-10 victory.

Marshall’s excellence behind the service line continued in set two when Jordyn Hilgemann put together an incredible 19-point serving streak that effectively clinched another win for the Tigers, giving them a 2-0 lead in the match after taking the set 25-10.

Westby was happy to see the team’s emphasis on serving during practices pay off in Thursday’s game.

“We spend a lot of time in practice on serving so that’s a skill that we feel we should be pretty good at. Jordyn has the ability to do that to go back to the service line and put together a string like that,” said Westby. “(It’s) not easy to do, but she can do it and that was a nice run she had for us in set two there. It kind of decided the set at that point.”

The Tigers left nothing to chance in the third and final set by jumping out to a commanding lead at 8-2 highlighted by kills from Logan Sherman and Hilgemann. After Marshall’s lead grew to 21-9, Tessa Gannott notched three straight aces to bring Marshall to within one point of winning the match. The Trojans managed to go on a 7-0 run to make it 24-16 before the Tigers scored the game-winning point to take the match 3-0.

Next up for the Tigers (25-5) will be a quarterfinals matchup at home against No. 4 seed Pipestone on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Marshall defeated Pipestone 3-0 (25-13, 25-10, 25-7) in their previous meeting earlier this month.

In spite of the team’s recent success against the Arrows, Westby admitted that it can be challenging to play conference opponents during tournament time.

“I think like Worthington tonight, I think it’s sometimes difficult to play those teams on our side of the conference and turn around and play them again at tournament time,” said Westby. “I think that’s tough and we’re thankful that we get to play at home.”

Marshall 3, Worthington 0

Marshall 25 25 25

Worthington 10 10 16

KILLS: Marshall (Sherman 14, Hilgemann 7, Morris 6).

DIGS: Marshall (Timm 8, Schnaible 8, Morris 7).

SERVING (Aces): Marshall (Meier 11-11 (4), Hilgemann 25-25 (4), Gannott 3-4 (3)).

SET ASSISTS: Marshall (Schwarz 19, Sherman 11).