Photo by Sam Thiel The Marshall volleyball team poses with their Class AAA trophy after defeating Kasson-Mantorville on Saturday at Xcel Energy Center.

MARSHALL — The Marshall volleyball team served the ball to Kasson-Mantorville with a 24-16 lead and, after a couple of rallies, a kill attempt by the KoMets sailed out of bounds. Marshall’s players rushed the floor at Xcel Energy Center and embraced each other, as MHS had earned a sweep over Kasson-Mantorville to win the Class AAA championship on Saturday, closing the book on an unbelievable season and the team’s seventh overall championship as a program. It’s the first championship for Marshall since 2013.

Marshall’s win also made some history, as it joins Robbinsdale Armstrong, Tracy-Milroy and Tracy-Milroy-Balaton, Eagan and Bethlehem Academy/Faribault with the most volleyball championships in the Minnesota State High School League.

But Marshall’s journey towards the championship was far from easy. Before the season, Marshall made the jump from Class AA to AAA when volleyball added a fourth class of competition. MHS last played in Class AAA in 2016 and earned the top spot in the Class AAA preseason rankings.

It never gave it up. And Marshall had many challengers along the way.

MHS’s season and home opener was against Willmar, who entered the season at the No. 3 ranking in Class AAA, and defeated the Cardinals 3-0. Marshall then won 10 of its next 11 matches, with its only loss coming to Minneota in three sets in the Southwest Challenge tournament. Then in its second tournament of the season, the Eagle Invite in Apple Valley, MHS faced four Class AAAA teams and went 3-1, defeating Prior Lake, Chaska and Lakeville North 2-0 and dropping to Eagan 2-1.

From that point on, Marshall was hard to stop. MHS won its final 13 matches to close the regular season, including an impressive outing at the Todd L. Bachman Invite in Lakeville in mid-October. At the tournament, Marshall played five matches, four of them against Class AAAA teams (Lakeville South, Rochester Mayo, East Ridge and Eden Prairie) and the other against Sioux Falls Roosevelt, who play in the highest class in South Dakota. MHS won all five matches, dropping only one set the entire tournament.

Marshall coach Dan Westby said at the state tournament that after winning the Lakeville tournament, they really started to believe they could make a deep playoff run and compete for a championship.

“I think it was at that point where our kids really started to believe that they could really do something special with this season,” Westby said. “I really think they haven’t looked back and have always wanted more in this playoff run and I know every team wants to get to the championship but I know this group, when I say they were dialed in and focused, that’s what they’re looking at.”

MHS then defeated St. Peter 3-0 for its eighth straight Big South Conference championship and earned the top seed in the Section 2AAA tournament. Marshall quickly dispatched Worthington and Hutchinson in a sweep before getting past Willmar in four sets to advance to its 30th state tournament.

Marshall was awarded the No. 1 seed in the Class AAA tournament and opened the tournament against random draw St. Paul Highland Park. The first set saw Marshall get out to a slow start, but MHS was able to take the opening frame 25-14. Set 2 was all Marshall, as it cruised to a 25-4 victory to take a 2-0 lead. The third set was similar to its previous counterpart, with MHS claiming the frame 25-10 to earn the sweep.

Marshall would have nearly 48 hours to prepare for its next match. MHS’s readiness paid off, as it commanded the pace from the opening set against Grand Rapids in the semifinals, winning by scores of 25-9, 25-11 and 25-12 to advance to the championship match against Kasson-Mantorville. There, MHS found itself trailing 21-15 late in the first set before rallying to win the frame 27-25. After winning the second set 25-22, Marshall was again in a pivotal situation in Set 3, with the score deadlocked at 16-all but MHS earned the final nine points to win the championship.

Marshall finished the season with an overall record of 33-2 and only dropped 10 sets the entire year.

Westby said they like how their schedule is put together with the three challenging tournaments spread out a couple of weeks apart and that they test their team. Westby added their high level of intensity in practices during the season was a huge factor to their success at the tournament.

“We talked about this in the locker room afterwards, our practices this year were amazing. Every day was just a war, we would always practice on this court and it was just fun to watch,” Westby said. “Mr. [Terry] Bahlmann would always tease me that the best two teams in the conference were in our gym every day, one on one side of the net and one on the other and it really was a battle every day. I think when you do that every day, it just becomes a habit and I think it just makes your team that much better. I think the proof was in the pudding and I think that’s why we came out on top because that’s really a habit for us to play like that every day.”