Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall's Kennedy Drake (white) reacts after a point during Marshall's 3-0 win over DeLaSalle in the Class 3A quarterfinals at Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday night.

ST. PAUL — In a rematch of last year’s Class 3A quarterfinals, the top-seeded Marshall volleyball team wasted no time punching their ticket to yet another state semifinals with a straight-sets win over DeLaSalle at the Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday night. The Tigers won each of the three sets by a score of 25-11.

Wednesday’s match was far closer than last year’s. The Islanders’ 2022 state tournament appearance came after their first-ever section championship. Marshall ran away with the match in straight sets, 25-10, 25-4, 25-4, but the Islanders looked much improved this time around.

“Those kids handled the moment a lot better than they did a year ago. I think maybe the bright lights got to them a little bit and that wasn’t the case this year. I thought they were ready to go,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said.

Marshall libero Kennedy Drake added that even though the Tigers had success in last year’s postseason, the focus heading into any given match is to take things one game at a time and be sure not to overlook any opponents.

While the Tigers went on to win each set handily, it took some time for the Tigers to find their rhythm. DeLaSalle had the first set tied at 4-4 before Marshall began to pull away with a 13-1 run, helmed by Brielle Riess at the service line for nine of those points. She got her second kill of the game to put herself at the service line and served up two of her three aces on the night during that stretch as well. Reese Drake also had three of her six kills in the set during Riess’ service run.

Jordan Johnson scored three of the Islanders’ first four points but her transition to the back row and her time on the bench were momentum-changers for the Tigers, Westby said.

“When the Johnson kid was on the bench, that really I thought was the deciding factor in set one. We were able to make a big push and score a lot of points when she wasn’t in the match,” Westby said.

DeLaSalle fought back from there but was never able to get any closer than 10 points. Mackenzie Olson capped off the set with a kill for a 25-11 Marshall win.

Even outside of Riess’ service run, the Tigers had success serving the ball throughout the match. Riess and Reese Drake each tallied three aces in the match while Kennedy Drake and Lydia Moore finished with another two. As a team, Marshall had 12 service aces and six service errors with a serve percentage of .919.

“I don’t know what’s going on in other gyms, but we spend a lot of time in practice serving and that’s one of the things we feel like we can hang our hat on every night is our ability to be disruptive from the service line,” Westby said. “We put a lot of pressure on them with the service and made it difficult for them. When you’re doing that, it makes it easier for you.”

Marshall setter Brooke Gillingham’s ability to spread the ball around to the Tiger hitters was a big part of the team’s success in the match. After hitting the 1,000 career assists in the section championship against Mankato West, the sophomore setter continued to find success with 39 assists in the match. She didn’t commit an error on 66 attempts.

Riess led all hitters in the match with 16 kills while Reese Drake and Morgan Bjella added 12 and 10 respectively. As a team, the Tigers put together a .440 hitting percentage while holding the Islanders to .047.

Riess and DeLaSalle Hitter Jordyn Johnson exchanged kills to start the second set before Marshall started to pull away. A DeLaSalle service error sent Gillingham to the service line and Marshall went on a 6-0 run to take control of the set. A Marshall service error broke up the run before kills from Riess, Morgan Bjella and Olsen helped Marshall to another 5-0 run to lead 12-2. From there, the Islanders never came any closer than 8 points. Marshall led by as many as 16 in the set before a Johnson kill and a pair of Marshall attacking errors gave DeLaSalle three more points but the Tigers still closed out the match 25-11.

DeLaSalle threatened to steal the third set from the Tigers after jumping out to a 6-5 lead. A pair of Johnson kills and three Marshall errors helped the Islanders build the early lead, but the Tigers locked in from there.

Kennedy Drake took to the service line after Bjella’s kill tied up the game at 6-6. Marshall would go on to take a 15-6 behind a pair of kills each from Bjella and Drake, as well as capitalizing on three DeLaSalle errors. The Tigers went on to win the set 25-11.

Kennedy Drake once again led Marshall defensively with 14 digs on the night while Gillingham added another nine. As a team, Marshall out-dug DeLaSalle 39-20. Lia DeSibour led the Islanders with six digs, making her the only player on her team with five or more.

“We talked about early before the game that they were going to hit the middle a lot, so I knew I’d be ready for that,” Kennedy Drake said. “Also just off-speed a lot and keeping the ball in play, so I had to be light on my feet and get our setters the ball so we could get the offense going.”

Johnson led DeLaSalle offensively with nine kills in the match. Bella Johnson (3) and Taletta Jones (2) were the only other Islanders to register a kill.

“[Johnson] is a very good player… She can just be very disruptive offensively and she was able to score some points for them, but I thought our kids did some good things,” Westby said. “I thought we served well, maybe forced them to pass the ball a little bit poorer than they would have hoped, but like I said, I thought our serve-pass game was pretty good.”

Ahead of the Tigers’ match, Stillwater overcame a 2-0 deficit to take down No. 3 Rogers in five sets in the Class 4A tournament while No. 5 Anoka also beat No. 4 Eagan in five. That, Westby said, is among the reasons that getting the job done in three sets is important.

“The casual fan that’s sitting in the stands is probably thinking… it’s okay if this thing goes four or even five, but the two matches on the court prior to ours, that’s exactly what happened,” Westby said. “I think teams had opportunities to win early and weren’t able to do it, so then you get to that fifth set, it’s anybody’s… If you have an opportunity to win in three, I really think it’s important to do that.”

The Marshall Tigers will take on No. 4 Detroit Lakes in the Class 3A semifinals on Friday morning. The game will be played at 9 a.m. on Court 1 at the Xcel Energy Center. Riess said that cleaning up errors and working together consistently as a team will be key for the team’s continued success, while Olsen added that keeping the energy high is also an important factor.