Photo by Jake McNeill: Minneota outside hitter Eden Meagher goes up for a kill in the third set of the Vikings’ 3-0 road win over Wabasso on Tuesday night.

WABASSO — Class A’s top-ranked Minneota volleyball team started its season with a bang on Tuesday night, taking a straight-sets road win against No. 9 Wabasso. Each of the three sets ended with a 25-15 score in favor of the Vikings.

“We knew that they’re a very well-coached team and they’ve been young for a couple of years, so they kind of have the same kids every single year so we knew they were only going to be better than they were last year,” Minneota head coach Hayley Fruin said. “They showed that tonight. We knew that they played great defense and so I just told our hitters, ‘you can’t be frustrated when they’re keeping balls alive, alright?’ We just had to take smart shots and keep playing.”

On a night in which points were hard to come by against a staunch Rabbits defense, Ella Johnson led the Vikings with 10 kills. Elivia Faris and Eden Meagher each had six while Emma Bottelberghe added another five.

“It’s all about taking smart shots and I think our kids did that at times. Maybe we did get a little bit too excited because it’s our first match and we had a little bit too many unforced hitting errors tonight, but you’ve got to give credit to [Wabasso head coach] Barb [Johnson], their defense is incredible, so it’s a fun match to play them always,” Fruin said. 

There seemed to be no stretch of floor where the Rabbits couldn’t get to a ball defensively. They extended numerous points, including a particularly long one at the end of the second set. Yet, the Vikings got the point to clinch the set and grab a 2-0 lead. Avery Carlson led the Wabasso back row with 16 digs while also racking up a team-high seven kills. Audrey Johnson added another 11 digs while Sara Carlson and Alivia Olson each had nine.

“I think in general, our defense is very good as a team, so we’ve been really working to keep it consistent and keep it a weapon of ours,” coach Johnson said. “Tonight, they just showed that with really good hitting — Minneota’s obviously a really good team — that they can still play defensively tough against them.”

While Wabasso had plenty of defense, it was Minneota libero Lyzah Sussner that led the match in digs. She finished with 19. Ella Johnson added another 10 while Grace Hennen finished third on the team with nine.

Nevaeh Hennen and Faith Myhre helped set up many of the Vikings’ points, tallying 16 and 15 assists respectively.

“I think our setters feel comfortable with giving it to any of our hitters at any time and all of our hitters have proven tonight. I truly love that when the game was done, I don’t know actually who led in kills tonight but it seemed like it was a very balanced attack,” Fruin said. 

One factor that made things difficult for Wabasso was Minneota’s sizable height difference up at the net. While the Rabbits did a good job of not letting it get the best of them too often, Bottelberghe, Johnson, Faris and Meagher each had a block in the game. 

“I thought our blockers had a lot of touches tonight and they did very well with the size difference. I think their middle is probably three inches taller, or more, than our middle. SO that was a challenge for us, but it’s a challenge that we’ll deal with all year, so we’ll just keep working at it,” coach Johnson said.

Sara Carlson had a team-high 18 set assists for Wabasso.

“It’s just a totally different level of volleyball playing against a team like Minneota. The way that they can stay focused on the game throughout, it’s pretty impressive,” coach Johnson said. “I think that’s one thing that at this point our team lacks and we’re going to work on.

“I think we played tough for three games, so being able to do that I think is just something that we can grow from.”

Wabasso (2-1) will go on the road to face off against Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Minneota (1-0) will continue its start to the season on the road when it takes on Redwood Valley on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. Both Minneota and Wabasso will also compete in the Southwest Minnesota Challenge volleyball tournament in Marshall on Friday and Saturday.