SECTION 3A VOLLEYBALL: Familiar feeling
No. 1N Minneota gets past No. 2S TMB, advances to state
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MARSHALL -- Going into Saturday's Section 3A championship, the Minneota volleyball team looked to continue its recent stretch of qualifying for the state tournament. Meanwhile their opponent, No. 2S Tracy-Milroy-Balaton hoped to keep its strong momentum going, especially after stunning top-seeded Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda in five sets in the semifinals on Thursday.
With a balanced offense leading the way, No. 1N Minneota maintained its streak, earning a 3-0 (25-18, 25-14, 25-21) victory to advance to the state tournament. This will be the fourth consecutive state trip for the Vikings when the tournament has been held.
Minneota coach Hayley Fruin credited TMB for pushing them to the limit in every frame and felt they got into a rhythm more throughout the match and had multiple people involved on offense.
"Give Tracy a lot of credit, I mean yes, we won 3-0, but every single set was a tough set. They pushed us up until match point 25, I give coach [Rick] Haberman a lot of credit, he does a great job with that program, they did not let up," Fruin said. "It just came down to passing and serving, I thought in the first set we were sitting back too much, our shoulders were up and once we kind of got in system, I thought we did a great job of getting our middles involved, especially Abby Frie. I loved seeing that she was swinging aggressive at the net and that was a big difference in the match."
Minneota got out to an early lead in Set 1 before a service ace by Lauren Zick drew TMB to within one at 5-4. Both teams then traded points over the next few serves, with Minneota holding on to its lead, as a kill by Frie made it 13-9, but a kill by Maddi Langerock got the Panthers to within two at 15-13. The Vikings wouldn't led TMB get any closer, with an ace by McKenzie Tolk making it 18-14 before Minneota took Set 1, 25-18.
The Panthers gained the lead to start Set 2, going up 3-2 before the Vikings answered with a 4-1 run to take a 6-4 advantage. The two sides exchanged points, but Minneota continued to create separation, as a kill by Ireland Stassen made it 12-8 before a 5-1 run pushed its advantage to 17-9. Minneota then took a double-digit lead at 23-13 before claiming Set 2, 25-14 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Vikings held a 4-1 advantage in the early stages of Set 3, before a kill by Ella Johnson made it 9-4. Both teams traded points over the next few serves, but Minneota maintained its lead, taking a double-digit advantage at 18-8. The Panthers wouldn't go down without a fight, however, getting to within seven at 23-16 before trimming the deficit to three at 24-21, but Minneota got the final point to clinch the victory.
With the loss, TMB's season comes to an end at 22-10. Despite the final outcome, Haberman said he felt they competed hard the entire match and never gave up but just didn't have quite enough to earn the win.
"We came to the match ready to compete and battle and I thought we did that throughout the match," Haberman said. "Sometimes the scores don't indicate how well each team played, I thought we played a good match, Minneota just played better, but I thought our kids fought hard and never gave up and it just wasn't enough."
Kiarra Danielson led TMB with nine kills while Camille Dolan recorded six and Amber Hensch and Langerock each had five. Margaret Dolan led in digs with 18 while Danielson added 16 and Langerock had 10. Langerock also led in set assists with 26.
Natalee Rolbiecki led Minneota with 18 kills while Frie added 11 and Stassen had eight. Tolk led in digs with 23 while McKenna Yost added 16, Rolbiecki and Lyzah Sussner each had 13 and Stassen had 10. Yost led in set assists with 25 while Stassen added 18.
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Minneota (27-4) earned the No. 2 seed in the Class A tournament and will face random draw Badger/Greenbush-Middle River on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center. Going into the state tournament, Fruin said they'll need to take it one day at a time and continue to work on their serving and passing.
"Just take it day-by-day," Fruin said. "It's just going to get tougher from here on out and we have to clean up a few things but we just need to get more repetitions with our setter and keep working on serving and passing."
Minneota 3, TMB 0
TMB 18 14 21
Minneota 25 25 25
Kills: Minneota (Rolbiecki 18; Frie 11; Stassen 8); TMB (Danielson 9; C. Dolan 6; Langerock, Hensch 5).
Digs: Minneota (Tolk 23; Yost 16; Sussner, Rolbiecki 13; Stassen 10); TMB (M. Dolan 18; Danielson 16; Langerock 10).
Set Assists: Minneota (Yost 25; Stassen 18); TMB (Langerock 26).