Marshall setter Brooke Gillingham goes in for a dig during the second set of a girls volleyball game against Pipestone Area at Marshall High School on Tuesday night. The Tigers defeated the Arrows in straight sets.

MARSHALL — Coming off a weekend of quality competition against Class 4A opponents, the No. 2 Marshall volleyball team was more than prepared to take on Pipestone Area on Tuesday. The Tigers never trailed in their match against the Arrows, coasting to a 25-10, 25-16, 25-11 sweep.

Over the weekend, Marshall went 2-2 at the Apple Valley Eagle Invitational. They picked up 2-0 wins over Stillwater Area and Apple Valley but fell shy against No. 2 Lakeville North and No. 7 East Ridge. While the results placed them sixth in the tournament, it gave the Tigers some key experience against high-level opponents.

“We talked about this after the Apple Valley tournament that, regardless of who’s on the other side of the net, we’ve got to play hard,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said. “Pipestone did some good things tonight. They blocked a number of balls, but we can’t look and see who’s on the other side of the net and then adjust our game. We’ve got to play our game. One of the things that we always try to do is play fast. We feel that’s important to do and I thought we did a good job of that tonight.”

Pipestone Area hung around early in the first set but the Tigers dominated the second half of the set, hardly letting the Arrows gain an ounce of momentum as they claimed a 25-10 victory.

Reese Drake was particularly impactful late in the set. The junior outside hitter took over late and Pipestone had no answer for her. She finished the match with 12 kills and 12 digs, as well as a pair of service aces.

“I think Reese did a very good job of finding openings in the defense and was able to score there,” Westby said. “Play was pretty even there for a while. Largely due to our hitters, we were able to increase the gap at that point.”

Avery Fahl finished the night as Marshall’s leading hitter with 14 kills while Laurel Ryks added another seven. Fahl, a junior setter and middle blocker, also led the team with five blocks and her seven digs tied Brooke Gillingham and Kezlyn Pinckney for second on the team.

Marshall carried the momentum from the first set into the start of the second, building up an early lead before Pipestone fought its way back into things. Marshall struggled to close out the Arrows late but still maintained a solid distance for the 25-16 win in game 2 before putting everything together in game 3.

In the final set, the Tigers were nearly flawless in their execution, jumping out to a 13-2 lead. While Pipestone Area made some progress as the Tigers went deeper into their rotations, they never posed a legitimate threat to steal the game.

“We had a variety of attacks. Avery was behind the center a couple of times and Trinity [Brownlee] was able to connect on a play in the middle,” Westby said. “We just had a variety of ways that we scored in that third set and I think that was good to see.”

Brownlee finished the match with a pair of blocks, tying Drake and falling shy only of Fahl.

While the Tigers have had one consistent setter the past few years, Fahl and Gillingham have continued to excel while splitting duties at the position. Gillingham led the team with 21 set assists on Tuesday night while Fahl contributed another eight.

“They’re both very good players and we just feel like we need them to be on the court at all times,” Westby said of the duo. “It makes the most sense, I guess, to have both players set when they’re in the back row. But we need those two on the court and it’s just a matter of where we’re going to put them.”

Halle DeVos was effective from the service line all match long. She led the team with 20 serves without an error while Drake also had 10 error-free serves. DeVos and Drake each had a pair of aces while Pinckney added another.

Marshall improves to 15-4 with the victory and remains a perfect 10-0 in best-of-5 matches. They’ll look to keep the trend going when they host Jackson County Central (4-8) on Thursday at 7:15 p.m.