Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall outside hitter Brielle Riess spikes the ball through a pair of Willmar defenders during the Tigers' 3-0 win over the Cardinals in the 2AAA section semifinals in Marshall on Friday night.

MARSHALL — Challenges for the top-ranked Marshall volleyball are few and far between. The Tigers haven’t dropped a set to an opponent in Class AAA or lower all season heading into their Section 2AAA semifinals matchup against No. 4 Willmar on Friday night. The Cardinals kept things interesting throughout but, once again, Marshall came away with a 3-0 sweep to advance to their sixth consecutive section championship.

“We maybe didn’t play the cleanest match tonight, but solid play by Willmar had a lot to do with that too,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said. “They were ready to go and we had some serving glitches tonight that we certainly need to iron out before Wednesday.”

With their backs against the wall and their season on the line, Willmar led 9-7 in the third set. From there, however, Marshall went on an 8-1 run to take control of the set. Brooke Gillingham served up 6 of the Marshall points on what was effectively a match-sealing run. The Cardinals started to creep back while trailing 22-12 but a Reese Drake kill out of the timeout ended the 5-1 Cardinal run and a Willmar hitting error past the back line gave Marshall a 25-17 win.

“I think that’s the first time we’ve called a timeout in a section match in three years,” Westby said. “I think it was just a case where we just needed to pass the ball and, fortunately, Kennedy [Drake] was able to take care of things a little bit better at that point and we were able to get a better opportunity to swing.”

Gillingham went on to finish the match with 36 set assists, seven digs and an ace.

Willmar and Marshall had met in the teams’ season opener back on Aug. 24 with the Tigers winning 25-8, 25-17, 25-18.

In each of the first two sets, the Cardinals kept things close early. They had the game tied at 5-5 in the first set and as late as 7-7 in the second. Still, the Tigers pulled away in both for 25-18 and 25-15 set victories.

“We always feel like we should be ready to go from the first serve and play was pretty even until about 10 points in all three sets, but we found a way to get it done. At this point in the season, all that matters is are you moving on or not and we get the opportunity to play Wednesday,” Westby said.

The Cardinals’ size up front provided some challenges for the Tigers throughout the match but particularly in the third set. Marshall’s hitters struggled at times to get the ball past the net. Still, they made adjustments and found a way to win.

“They’ve got some size and they’ve got some athletic kids, so they’re going to take care of some balls, but our kids did some good things offensively as well that kind of neutralized their blocking,” Westby said.

Morgan Bjella led Tiger hitters with 16 kills and a block. Reese Drake also had 12 kills while Brielle Riess had 11 kills and three blocks.

In the back row, Kennedy Drake led the Tigers with 17 digs while Reese Drake had another 10. Riess and Jayda Bednarek also each contributed six digs.

Kennedy Drake went 19-of-19 from the service line with an ace.

Marshall (26-5) will face the winner of No. 2 Mankato West and No. 3 St. Peter at Redwood Valley with the hope of clinching its sixth consecutive state tournament berth. Marshall swept St. Peter to win its 10th consecutive Big South Championship on Oct. 17 and swept Mankato West on Sept. 25. Both matchups came on the road.

“It’s the opportunity to play in a section championship, it shouldn’t take a whole lot to get somebody fired up for that,” Westby said of the match. “We’re going to hopefully have a couple of good days of practice on Monday and Tuesday and do the best job we can of getting our kids ready to go.”

The Section 2AAA championship match will begin on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Story will be updated with stats