Photo by Jake McNeill Minneota middle blocker Kenadi Arndt (10) goes up for a hit during the top-ranked Vikings’ win over No. 3 RTR in Minneota on Thursday night.

MINNEOTA — Volleyball fans that made the trip to Minneota to see the top-ranked Vikings take on the No. 3 Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Knights got their money’s-worth on Thursday night. The crowd was as loud as a championship match for the five-set regular-season rivalry match with fans of both sides audibly in attendance. Still, it was the home crowd fans that went home happy as the Vikings walked away with a 3-2 thriller victory.

“I live for the energy. I love it. I just love celebrating and getting hype and just want it to go on and on and on,” Minneota outside hitter Elivia Faris said of the energy in the building. “The first set, I’m always so hyped up and then the second set, just relax… You just have to play as a team and I feel like when we play as a team, we just bring that energy.”

While the match was competitive throughout, the Vikings made the deciding fifth set something of an anticlimax. The Knights jumped out to a 2-1 lead before Minneota responded with eight unanswered points.

“We knew it was going to be a battle coming into tonight… I think just to start out, we were kind of back on our heels a little bit, so we were overplaying and we were out of system a lot to start out,” Minneota head coach Hayley Fruin said. “Once the kids just relaxed and started playing their style of volleyball, things just started to click and we were able to move the ball around offensively.”

The Knights were able to keep pace from there but were not able to significantly cut down the deficit and Minneota won 15-7 to send the crowd into a frenzy.

“It was kind of crazy, but we all knew that we have to stay calm and can’t let that get to us,” Minneota middle blocker Kenadi Arndt said. “We had to play our game like we know how to.”

Photo by Jake McNeill: Minneota setter Nevaeh Hennen reacts after one of the final points of the match during the top-ranked Vikings’ win over No. 3 RTR in Minneota on Thursday night.

The Knights had an issue with errors in the last set, an issue that the team will focus on cleaning up ahead of next week’s section tournament, RTR head coach Daynica Brown said.

Minneota is a team that prides itself on being able to have any of its hitters perform at a high level on any given night. On Thursday, nobody showed up more than middle blocker Kenadi Arndt. Not only were her seven blocks on the night more than the match’s next two leading blockers combined, but her 16 kills also tied RTR’s Abby Carr for a match-high.

“Kenadi from last year to this year is definitely the most improved player. She’s gained a lot of confidence,” Fruin said. “We had three weeks of practice before we had our first game, so we had a lot of one-on-one sessions with her and something clicked and she’s just ran with it.”

Faris contributed another 15 kills while Ella Johnson added nine, three aces and a pair of blocks.

While both teams had standout defensive play throughout the match, Minneota’s back line in particular stood out in the clinching game.

Abby Rolbiecki made some impressive point-saving digs in the frame to keep the Knights off the board and, as usual, libero Lyzah Sussner was spectacular all night for the Vikings. Sussner tied RTR’s Avery Schreurs with a match-high 28 digs while Grace Hennen and Abby Rolbiecki added 23 and 18 respectively for the Vikings.

“We discussed it with our back row yesterday and today, there’s going to be big holes on certain players and you just have to defend. You’ve got to stay on your feet, you can’t drop to your knees… and I think they were just a lot more disciplined in that first set instead of just being panicked when they saw that there was not a close block,” Fruin said. “They’re willing to just dive out and give their body and that’s what you want to see in those back row players.”

On the Knights’ side, Tatum Hess had 23 digs while Abby Carr and Gabi Borresen had 21 and 20.

The Vikings nearly clinched the match in the fourth set but RTR wasn’t ready to go home yet. Neither team led by more than a few points for the duration of the set, but when Minneota came back to tie the set at 19-19 before taking a 23-20 lead, it seemed they were the team of destiny. Yet, a 4-0 RTR run put the Knights back in the driver’s seat. Neither team gave an inch defensively but the Knights eventually were able to pull out a 28-26 win to force a fifth game.

Photo by Jake McNeill: Minneota outside hitter Elivia Faris goes up for a hit.

“These girls are very confident in their game, in their play, so they knew they could come back and compete,” Brown said. “It just happened to go their way… ultimately we want to get a win when it counts ultimately. Tonight’s game was just a good battle test for playoffs. It was great to have this experience before going into playoffs because a lot of great teams in our section, so having this experience and… learning from it will be huge. I’d love to have the win though.”

Like the fourth set, all of the prematch hype came to fruition in a back-and-forth first-set battle. After the Knights scored the game’s first two points, the Vikings went on a 5-1 run to seemingly take control of the set. RTR responded with a 5-1 run of their own before the Vikings scored 5 unanswered points to retake the lead.

RTR’s largest lead of the set was a 4-point, 18-14 lead. Still, the Vikings came right back to tie up the set at 19 points apiece. Still, RTR’s balanced attack, led by a 5-point set from Carr, held on to take the first game 25-23.

In the second set, however, the Vikings wasted no time turning the tide their way. Minneota started firing out the gates, building up an early 5-1 lead with their blockers looking particularly strong. The Knights tried to stop the momentum with a time-out, but it was no use; Minneota came out of the huddle and increased their lead to 12-3 before going on to win 25-12.

“They’re in those situations all the time in practice,” Fruin said of bouncing back from the first set. “No matter how much they got down, they were still going to find a way to win that set. Their mind didn’t go to set two, it was all about winning set one even though they were down a good chunk of points.”

Dilyn Werkman left the second game early with a sprained ankle. She temporarily had to leave the gym to be looked at by an athletic trainer but came back to play in the third game and finished as the Knights’ second-leading hitter with 14 kills despite the injury.

“She came out and just dealt with the pain and played a fabulous game,” Brown said. “She hit very well, she hit smart shots and some great blocks. It was great seeing Dylin have a top-notch performance tonight.”

In addition to Carr and Werkman, Ally Nelson also had a big game with 13 kills. The team’s ability to generate offense from anywhere can largely be attributed to the play of setter Gabi Borresen. The senior finished the match with 47 set assists and tied Nelson with a team-high three blocks.

Game 3 was yet another show of the parity between two of Class A’s top teams. Minneota held an early lead throughout the first half of the set before the Knights eventually tied the match at 13-13 and then took the lead. After the Knights took a 17-16 lead, however, Minneota locked in. They scored 3 unanswered points to tie the to take a 19-17 lead and, after the Knights tied the game again, Minneota scored 6 unanswered points to win the game 25-19.

Neveah Hennen contributed a team-high 37 set assists in the win for Minneota.

Photo by Jake McNeill:(left to right) Dakoda Hennen, Elivia Faris, Eden Meagher, Grace Hennen and Faith Myhre react after a Minneota point.

Minneota has now won four straight matches against the Knights, including last year’s Camden Conference Championship and Section 3A Championship.

Minneota finishes its regular season at 26-3 and will now prepare for the Camden Conference Championship on the road against No. 10 MACCRAY on Monday at 7 p.m.

“I think our hitters can still work on their shots, all swinging anywhere and everywhere, but then I also think we can just always serve more aggressive and we’ve got to just pass a little better,” Fruin said. “We didn’t always pass great tonight, so that’s something we’re really going to focus on here come postseason.”

Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, the 2023 Red Rock Conference Champions, have finished their regular season at 23-6 and will now have time to rest up before they face the winner of No. 8 Tracy-Milroy-Balaton and No. 9 Hills-Beaver Creek in the Section 3A South quarterfinals on their home court next Friday at 7 p.m.