Photo by Kim Nelson: Marshall's Morgan Bjella (3) tips the ball over the net during the Tigers' straight-sets win over Redwood Valley on Tuesday night.

MARSHALL – In a matchup of two of the best teams in the State, the top-ranked Marshall volleyball team played host to the Class AA No. 11 Redwood Valley Cardinals. Redwood Valley team is 17-2 with their only losses coming to Class A No. 1 Minneota and last weekend losing the Jimmy John’s Invitational Championship Game to Watertown, S.D. So it looked like this should be a great match, and the Cardinals looked to pull a minor upset on Marshall’s home court. It turned out to be a very competitive match, but the Tigers were able to string together longer runs all night and came away with a sweep by scores of 25-12, 25-19 and 25-15.

“Redwood Valley has had an outstanding season up to this point and we knew they were going to come in here and battle,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said. “They kept a lot of balls alive and made us work for our points. There were some long rallies, and it was really good volleyball by both teams.”

The first set was marked by a series of kills by both teams and early on, it was a close game. With the score 8-3 in favor of the Tigers, Kennedy Drake stepped up to the line and served four straight points with Morgan Bjella and Reese Drake each recording a kill.

Redwood Valley was not able to make many runs in the set, but both Kendall Huhnerkoch and Kylee Larsen had two kills to keep it close.

With the score 16-8, Brooke Gillingham provided the Tigers with a big lead by serving the next 5 points. Brielle Riess and Bjella each provided a pair of kills. After a service ace by Huhnerkock, Marshall was able to win the set, finished off by a block by Bjella, and took the set 25-12.

Riess finished the day with 20 kills while Bjella had another 13. They each also contributed a pair of blocks.

The second set was a close match all the way through with neither team able to open up a big lead. The Tigers led the entire game but never by 3 or 4 points. For Redwood Valley, Kylee Larsen had four kills and Huhnerkock hammered out three kills and a block to keep the Cardinals close, only trailing 19-14. With Reese Drake serving the next two points on a couple of kills, the Tigers stretched their lead to 6. Gillingham then served out the set with a Riess kill closing it out by a score of 25-19. Gillingham also had a team-high 46 set assists on the night.

The third set saw the Tigers jump out to an 8-1 lead with Lydia Moore serving 8 straight points, including an ace. The set was evenly played after that, with Redwood matching Marshall point for point, but they could not overcome the early deficit. They were able to get the score to to13-8, but Marshall was relentless with their kills by Riess with four and two kills by Bjella, coupled with a service ace by both Reese Drake and Gillingham. Bjella got the clinching kill to end the match.

“I thought we did a really good job tonight, especially our defense that had some great long rallies. They were just able to put the ball away a few more times than we did tonight,” Redwood Valley head coach Taya Lindahl said. “We gave them a huge lead in a couple of games, and then we weren’t able to climb back enough to win. We played right with them after those big leads, but it wasn’t enough against a great team like Marshall. We just need to start matches a little stronger. Marshall is never going to beat themselves, but I thought our defense was outstanding.”

Kennedy Drake finished the night with 15 digs, followed by Reese Drake with 11 and Jayda Bednarek with seven.

Marshall (18-3) will host Alexandria for its final regular-season home match on Thursday before traveling to Lakeville North for a tournament on Friday before heading into the postseason.

“This week, we have all tough opponents, facing Redwood tonight, then a really good Alexandria team on Thursday, going to Lakeville for a tournament this weekend,” Westby said. “Everybody we play this week is going to challenge us, and that will be good for us.”