Photo by Jake McNeill: Minneota middle blocker Kenadi Arndt hugs Ella Johnson (facing away from camera) after Johnson’s match-winning point during the Vikings’ 3-2 win over Canby in the 3A North subsection finals at Southwest Minnesota State University on Thursday night.

MARSHALL — A two-set deficit wasn’t enough to stop the top-seeded Minneota volleyball team from winning the Section 3A North bracket on Thursday night. The Vikings dropped each of their first two sets against the No. 2 Canby Lancers before winning three straight to return to the section championship for a rematch against Russell-Tyler-Ruthton.

The win comes on the heels of Minneota’s subsection semifinals sweep of No. 4 Renville County West on Tuesday.

“We didn’t play well Tuesday night. We were very flat and we just had a lack of energy and it kind of flowed into today,” Minneota head coach Hayley Fruin said. “Canby’s playing their best volleyball right now and we didn’t. They had us on our heels, we weren’t passing great, serve-receive passing well, but we just kind of woke up in that third set and we just turned on the intensity.”

With their backs against the wall, Minneota started the third set with a vengeance and jumped out to a 3-1 lead. Still, the Lancers wouldn’t go away; Canby stormed back to take its first lead of the third set at 9-8 before Minneota scored three unanswered points to go up 12-9.

Canby tried to slow the Minneota momentum with a timeout but the Vikings were undeterred; Minneota increased its lead to 19-10 with the only Canby point on the run coming from a Karlie Wollum kill.

Trailing by as many as 10 points, the Lancers rallied after Minneota called a timeout leading 21-12. Noyes gave Canby its first point out of the break, Emily Nelson got a block and a pair of Minneota errors cut the deficit to 5 points. Elivia Faris came away with a kill for the Vikings but Canby still scored the next two points to make the score 22-18.

Minneota called its last timeout and didn’t waste time capturing the set. They scored three unanswered points out of the huddle to claim a 25-18 win and end the Lancers’ hopes of a quick sweep.

“The girls came out and that’s all credit to them. That has nothing to do with me as a coach when you’re down two sets to zero. It was great to see that they had all the confidence in the world that they could still battle back and get a way to win,” Fruin said.

In the do-or-die fifth set, Minneota came out strong with a 5-1 run. They maintained that lead up until Canby called its second timeout while trailing 12-6. The Lancers wouldn’t go down easy and cut the deficit to 13-12. A Canby hitting error put Minneota a point away from advancing but a Brooklyn Kindopp block put the Lancers a point away from extending the set. With the subsection title in the balance, Ella Johnson went up for a hard spike and got the match-winning kill.

“I appreciate that on match point, Ella Johnson goes down with a hard swing. That’s what we want to see because anything off-speed, they were able to defend,” Fruin said. “They were tired, so they weren’t able to transition super deep. Same with us. We were getting gassed too, so we needed to swing in those moments and just trust that the block is going to be late.”

Johnson finished the match with 12 kills, second to Faris’ and Kenadi Arndt’s 17. Arndt, Faris, Johnson and Eden Meagher each also had a pair of blocks.

While her efforts weren’t enough to get the win, Nelson was nearly unstoppable for the Lancers in the loss. Her 35 set assists and 26 digs were both team-highs, her two aces tied Aliyah Rangaard and Minneota’s Dakoda Hennen for a match-high, and her 14 kills were second on Canby only to Kindopp’s 15.

Brynn Kockelman also had 25 set assists for the Lancers and tied Wollum for third on the team with 12 kills.

Canby seized momentum early in the first set with a 9-5 lead before Minneota called its first timeout. Faris finally ended the early Canby run at 11-5 with a kill but Brooklyn Kindopp responded with a kill of her own to keep Canby’s 6-point lead intact at 12-6.

From there, however, Minneota started to rally. They cut the deficit to 2 points and, after calling a timeout trailing 15-12 following a kill by Karlie Wollum, the Vikings scored four unanswered points to claim a 16-15 lead.

Needing a change in momentum, Canby called a timeout and came out of the huddle reinvigorated. They went on a 4-0 run with Nelson at the service line to take a 22-19 lead. A kill by Kindopp set up game-point at 24-21 but a hitting error kept Minneota alive. Still, Kockelman’s spike on the next point was too hot for the Minneota backline to handle and the Lancers claimed the first set 25-22.

Lyzah Sussner led all defensive players with 21 digs in the match. Still, defense is never a one-player effort. Nevaeh and Dakoda Hennen contributed 14 and 13 digs respectively while Abby Rolbiecki and Grace Hennen added 11 and nine.

Wollum was second to Nelson on the Lancers with 20 digs while Rangaard and Kockelman added 17 and 14 respectively.

The Vikings had the hot hand to start the second set, getting off to a quick 5-2 lead, but the Lancers scored five of the next six points to take their first lead of the frame. Minneota got back on top with two points of their own before the Lancers again scored five unanswered to take control of the set, 12-9.

The teams went back and forth from there until Minneota called a timeout trailing by a point, 17-16. Canby went on a 5-1 run out of the break to capture a 22-18 lead, but a pair of unanswered Minneota points prompted the Vikings to regroup in the huddle.

Out of the break, Canby scored the next two points with a block by Wollum putting Canby one point away from the set victory. Minneota called its last timeout to try to extend the set but, after scoring once to make it 24-23, Grace Hansen came up with a key block to secure the 25-23 win and a 2-0 lead.

In the fourth set, neither team seemed to be able to gain traction early. A kill from Nelson tied the set at 5-5 but it was all Minneota from there. The Vikings dominated the rest of the set for a 25-11 win to force a tiebreaking fifth set.

“We haven’t played a ton of five-set matches this year and… we’ve never been down oh-two in a five-set match and just still finding a way to still get everybody involved,” Fruin said, crediting Nevaeh Hennen and her 52 set assists as a big part of the win. “She did a great job of just being smart in her selection of who she’s setting to just to try to save some leg with everybody.”

Canby finishes its season at 25-9, a stark improvement from their 16-15 record last season. The Lancers defeated MACCRAY in the subsection semifinals, who they lost to in the same round last season, and made a clear step forward.

Minneota will now advance to the section championship for the seventh consecutive season. A win against Russell-Tyler-Ruthton would mark the Vikings’ sixth consecutive state tournament appearance. In the battle of two very talented teams, the Vikings can’t afford to go down 2-0 to start again.

“We’re just starting out so slow and we can’t do that,” Fruin said. “Our section is so tough. If you do that, you’re going to find yourself down one set to zero and battling back with pressure on you. We’ve got to come ready to go and start strong the next match we have on Saturday because it’s not going to get any easier.”

The Vikings and Knights went five sets in each of their last three best-of-five matchups. Minneota has won all three. Saturday’s 3A Championship match will be held at SMSU starting at 7:30 p.m.