Photo by Jake McNeill: Minneota’s Elivia Faris (9) and Sarah Gruenes put up a block during the first set of a section 3A North semifinal matchup against Renville County West on Tuesday night in Marshall. The top-seeded Vikings swept the No. 5 Jaguars to return to the subsection championship match.

MARSHALL — Strong defensive play from the top-seeded Minneota volleyball team’s front row helped the Vikings earn a straight-sets victory over No. 5 Renville County West in the Section 3A North semifinals on Tuesday. The Vikings picked up wins by set scores of 25-20, 25-16, 25-19 to extend their winning streak to five matches as they advance through the third round of the section tournament. 

“Each round is really tough every year in our section, but especially this year, there are a lot of talented teams,” Minneota head coach Hayley Fruin said. “We’d get like a 4-point lead and we just couldn’t keep it going. RCW found ways to still score and stop the momentum, so a lot of credit to them, it’s good to get tested. We’ve got a young, inexperienced team, so in an atmosphere like this, they just got to feel what it’s like to have a little pressure on them and I was happy to see how we kind of capitalized and came out in three tonight.”

The win marks the second consecutive sweep for the Vikings and their third in their last three matches. 

In Minneota’s postseason opener on Friday, the Vikings came off the first-round bye to sweep Lakeview behind 12 kills, 12 digs and four service aces from Eden Meagher. Abby Rolbiecki led the defense with 17 digs in the match. 

RCW had the hot hand early, scoring each of the match’s first 2 points. A kill from Meagher and another two from Jaylyn Coequyt gave Minneota its first lead but the two teams only traded points from there.

It wasn’t until the match was tied at 6-6 that the Vikings surged ahead. The Vikings rattled off four straight kills to prompt an RCW timeout trailing 10-6. Still, a block from Sarah Gruenes, a kill from Elivia Faris and a backline out from the Jaguars extended the Minneota scoring run to 7 unanswered points.

The stretch looked to be a springboard for Minneota to run away with game 1, but the Jaguars didn’t go down easy. RCW slowly ate into the Minneota lead, eventually forcing Fruin to call a timeout when their lead was trimmed down to 19-18.

“We just lacked a little bit of energy tonight,” Fruin said. “When you get on e big run like that, you’ve got to keep it going… that’s just not playing smart volleyball on our side either, so we’ve got to do a better job on Thursday of just making sure that we keep things simple and make sure that we’re playing smart, high-quality volleyball.”

After the huddle, the Vikings snapped back into form. Minneota scored 6 of the set’s last 8 points to close out the 25-20 win. Gruenes was responsible for 2 of the Vikings’ last 3 points, including the clinching kill.

Over the course of the night, Gruenes racked up three blocks along with several other tips that helped the Minneota back line adjust. Her eight kills were also good for third on the team behind Faris’ 10 and Coequyt’s nine. Her play came despite often facing a height disadvantage with the 6-foot-2 Avery Roxberg standing opposite her on the net for RCW.

“[Strong blocking] really helps us. We have a young team, so it’s really great to have people who start to bring some energy to the court so that other people can grow off that energy,” Gruenes said. “It’s definitely a little humbling to see people who are much taller than you across the net, but you just have to keep a mentality that no matter the height, it’s about the player that can go up there and go up strong.”

Alongside Gruenes, Meagher added four blocks for the Vikings while Lah Coequyt added another two. Meagher also finished with a team-leading 16 digs and seven kills in the match.

Abby Rolbiecki and Autumn Anderson helped the Minneota back row keep RCW hits from finding the ground, finishing with 15 and 10 digs respectively. Anderson had a particularly strong impact in the first set in which she made a series of tough digs.

“[Anderson] has a lot of confidence back there for a freshman and just does a really good job of covering so much court,” Fruin said. “She’ll give 100% and all of her body to get to the ball and tries to stay on her feet as much as she can in order to play disciplined defense, and also you’re just going to cover more court that way. Lot of credit to her, she dug a lot of balls tonight.”

Vikings come out strong in set 2, leading by 6 points, 11-5. RCW rallied back, cutting the Viking lead to as few as 3 points at 14-11, but looked outmatched from there. A Gruenes block eventually gave the Vikings their first double-digit lead of the match, 23-13. RCW added some window dressing, but a pair of kills from Faris and Leah Coequyt sealed the Minneota win at 25-15. 

Aggressive service has been a trademark of the Minneota Vikings’ success but the Jaguars’ serve receive challenged them, limiting the top-seeded Vikings to three aces in the match. Faris served up two while Hennen finished the night with one.

The Viking hitters had the benefit of a pair of strong performances from their setters, with Nevaeh Hennen and Libby Sussner each recording 20 set assists in the match.

Neither team could pull away early in the first set with the two teams alternating points until RCW middle blocker Rosberg exited the game with an apparent lower-body injury with the score tied at 3-3. Roxburg was the tallest player on the court by four inches. When she exited the game, Minneota scored 4 of the next 5 points to go up 7-4 for the first multi-point lead of the set.

Still, RCW stayed close and when Roxburg reentered the match, she got an emphatic block on the first point back to cut the deficit back to a point, 9-8. 

Fruin said that with RCW having a pair of tall middles, getting a good tempo going was key to getting good looks for the Viking hitters. 

“Any time that we’re out of system, they’re going to have a close block that’ll just be waiting and that’s kind of what happened in that third set,” Fruin said.

When an RCW kill made the score 12-11, Minneota called its first timeout. They generated some early momentum after talking things over with four unanswered points but the Jaguars wouldn’t go away, prompting the Vikings to call their final timeout leading 16-14.

RCW’s strong defensive front row continued to pester the Minneota hitters until the Jaguars tied up the set at 18-18. Yet, the Vikings surged through the finish line from there, claiming 7 of the match’s final 8 points to secure the win.

The top-seeded Vikings (22-10) will take on No. 2N Canby (24-6)  in the Section 3A North championship match on Thursday at 7 p.m. after the Lancers swept MACCRAY in the subsection semifinals. A win there would send the Vikings back to Saturday’s section championship match for the eighth consecutive year.

The match pins two of the state’s top teams against each other, as the Vikings and Lancers were ranked No. 3 and 4 in the final coaches poll on Oct. 20. The Vikings defeated the Lancers in straight sets when the two met in the Viking Gym on Oct. 1, but Canby has won 10 of its 11 matches since, the lone loss coming 2-1 against Class 4A Minneapolis Southwest at the Apple Valley Eagle Invitational on Oct. 12.

Fruin described Canby as being a veteran team despite its youth and said that the Lancers have plenty of talented hitters that can put the ball away, adding that Minneota will need to be playing up to its peak potential in order to compete.