Photo by Jake McNeill: Russell-Tyler-Ruthton outside hitter Laken Baartman (11) reacts after the final point of the Knights' straight-sets win over Pine River-Backus in the quarterfinals of the Class A volleyball tournament at the Xcel Energy Center on Thursday night.

ST. PAUL — In their first state tournament appearance as a group and as a program, the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton volleyball team showed that they belong at states. The top-seeded Knights took down Pine River-Backus in straight sets and will now advance to play No. 4 New Life Academy of Woodbury in the state semifinals Friday at 1 p.m.

“It feels great to be out there and just play as a team,” RTR middle blocker Camry Swanson said. “We know what we can do, how we can play. We just have to go out there, play our game and we know we can do it.”

While the Knights were able to pull away with each of the three sets, the Tigers gave RTR a scare early. Pine River-Backus led as late as 17-16. When the Knights last trailed, they had a team hitting percentage of .028.

“I think we were kind of nervous in the first set because it was obviously our first time being in a state tournament, so we were kind of a little bit nervous,” RTR’s Tatum Hess said. “The last two sets, I think we got more used to it and more used to fans and were used to how many people were there. Then we started playing like our team.”

From there, however, the Knights turned on the jets. Abby Carr got a kill to tie up the game and a pair of PRB attacking errors prompted the Tigers to call a timeout. RTR was still hot out of the break, however, as a Laken Baartman ace and kills from Carr and Gabi Borresen capped off a 6-0 RTR run.

PRB was able to get one more point in the set off an RTR hitting error but kills from Ally Nelson and Borresen set up match point and a PRB hitting error gave RTR a 25-18 win in the first set.

RTR head coach Daynica Brown echoed the sentiment that PRB’s experience in the state tournament and RTR’s lack thereof played a role in the Knights’ early struggles. She noted that the Knights led by as many as 8 points in the first set before the Tigers came storming ahead, but that she was proud of her team for being able to stay mentally in the match.

“We just had to refocus, get back into it and that’s what the girls did,” Brown said. “They went after it from that point on and they knew that they can bring a strong game and they knew they could clean it up. They knew they could win this game. They have that confidence.”

Any first-time-at-state jitters the Knights were experiencing in the first set melted away by the time the second set started. A pair of kills by Carr, another kill by Nelson, a service ace by Schreurs and five PRB attacking errors helped RTR get off to a quick 9-1 lead. The Knights didn’t let up and, led by five kills each from Nelson and Car, finished the set with a 25-10 victory.

“We cleaned up our game and then we served aggressive. Gabi did a great job of mixing up the sides, using all of our hitters, and I also think our block and defense stepped up in the last few sets and we kind of created a wall in the front row and got their hitters frustrated,” Brown said. “If they got through the wall, our back row defense stepped up and was just covering and going after… on the scramble plays, we were winning those plays and that was because of their efforts.”

RTR was held without a block in the first set. Their first of the game came in set two when Camry Swanson’s solo block gave the Knights a 17-7 lead. Swanson went on to finish the match with another block assist, Nelson had one solo and a pair of block assists and Sara Thooft had a pair of block assists.

Borresen had 31 set assists on the night without an error on 88 attempts. Her quality play also extended to defense, where she had a block assist and her 14 digs trailed only Avery Schreurs’ 18. The match was Borresen’s first since being named to the Minnesota Volleyball Coaches Association’s Class A All-State team on Tuesday night. Both Borresen and Carr were also on last year’s team.

“It was exciting to hear me and Abby both got it two years in a row. We just worked hard always and it’s exciting to hear that we got that and our hard work paid off,” Borresen said.

Hess injured her ankle in the second set of the Knights’ Section 3A championship win over Minneota on Saturday. Yet, despite the quick turnaround, she was able to play effectively on Thursday. Her 13 digs were good for third on the team on the night and put her over the 1,000 career digs milestone. She said that she didn’t think she was likely to play in the front row at all before heading up to state but, after icing and preparing last night, felt much better on the morning of the match.

“She’s a focused, driven on that side of it and being a senior, she was going to go out there and play,” Brown said.

The third and final set was much of the same for the Knights. After Brianna Henneken opened the set with a kill for PRB, RTR scored nine unanswered points. Dilyn Werkman, Nelson, Schreurs and Carr were each responsible for at least a point during the run.

PRB rallied with a 5-1 run of their own toward the end of the set but it was too little, too late; a pair of kills from Nelson put the finishing touches on a 25-13 match-sealing win for the Knights.

RTR led by as many as 14 points in the final frame before PRB rallied with a 5-1 run behind four RTR errors. Still, Nelson was able to send a pair of kills across the net to put the finishing touches on the 25-13 match-sealing win.

Nelson and Carr led the Knights’ front row with 14 kills each while Swanson added another four. While RTR wasn’t as efficient as it normally is, hitting .154 as a team, they still held a stark advantage up front due to their defensive play, holding PRB to a -.052 hitting percentage.

The Knights outdug PRB 65-53. In addition to the play of Schreurs, Borresen and Hess, Carr also contributed 11 digs.

RTR struggled with its serve receive early, something that could be a point of focus on cleaning up ahead of the state semifinal match Friday. They had a .897 serve receive percentage in the match with four errors and several other near-errors.

“That starts the engine of the front row… obviously we have a great setter in Gabi and she can take a lot of balls that aren’t always perfect and make them amazing, but in general, getting that pass, our passes are usually on the money,” Brown said, adding that some of the early struggles can be attributed to nerves and Hess’ ankle injury. “In general, I felt the last two games, they just stepped up and cleaned up their play and the passing, which helped Gabi… but, like I said, Gabi’s a great setter, so she can make magic out of a lot of things.”

The Knights will look to try to keep the magic going when they face No. 4 New Life Academy of Woodbury on Court 2 at 1 p.m. Friday.