Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall setter Brooke Gillingham sets the ball for one of her hitters during a prep volleyball game against Brookings (S.D.) on Thursday night in Marshall. The Tigers swept the Bobcats to improve to 17-4 on the season.

MARSHALL — Thursday night was senior night for the No. 2 Marshall volleyball team as it hosted Brookings (S.D.) for its penultimate home game. After a slow start, the Tigers found their rhythm as the match went on to sweep the Bobcats, 25-23, 25-10, 25-22.

“I just thought Brookings really played a clean first set. They didn’t make very many errors and that made it difficult for us and we took a while to get going,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said. “It was nice to see us hit our stride in that second set and clean a lot of things up, but boy, we have to play better on Saturday. We did a number of good things throughout the course of the match, but like I said, we’re going to have to clean some things up.”

The Tigers field a younger varsity roster than usual this year, boating nine juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen. As a result, they had just two seniors to honor in right-side hitter Ali Pederson and middle blocker Audree Larson.

In a rare turn of events, the Tigers found themselves trailing in the first game after Brookings scored 4 of the match’s first 5 points. The Bobcats extended their lead to as many as 6 points for a 17-11 lead.

A Brookings error followed by a Larson kill, a Halle DeVos ace and an emphatic kill from Avery Fahl cut the deficit to 17-15, prompting a Brookings timeout.

Coming out of the huddle, another Brookings error and another Fahl kill tied up the set for the first time at 20-20. Yet, Brookings rattled off another three unanswered points. While it’s rare for Marshall to call even one timeout in a match, they called their second of the first set trailing 23-20.

Marshall called the time out to take a moment to get back to the fundamentals, Westby said, citing specifically the need for the Tigers to move their feet and get their body in a position to make plays. Assistant coach Alex Boddy led the group during the huddle in the timeout, something Westby said the team is very comfortable with.

“She knows our team as well as anybody, and there are times when the information that she can provide is what they need to hear. I think that was the case there,” Westby said.

After talking things over, Marshall quickly snapped back into form. The Tigers responded with 5 unanswered points to claim the thrilling victory, 25-23.

Fahl posted a triple-double for the second match in a row for Marshall, tallying a team-best 17 kills as well as 13 digs and 14 set assists. She also served up a pair of aces on eight attempts and finished with four of the team’s six blocks, the other two coming from Reese Drake and Larson.

Drake added 16 kills in the match while Laurel Ryks finished with another 10.

Brookings started the second set strong like the first, claiming 2 of the first 3 points. It was all Marshall from there, however, as the Tigers strung together 7 unanswered points to take a commanding lead. In control of the set, Marshall never took its foot off the gas and ran away with the 25-10 statement victory.

Westby attributed the Tigers’ success in the second set compared to the first set to the Tigers cleaning up their errors and improved efficiency from their setters. He said that Gillingham and Fahl’s ability to connect with their hitters over the middle helped the offense click. Gillingham’s 28 set assists were a match-high.

The third set was competitive like the first. The Tigers led for the bulk of the match but Brookings made things close late, forcing Marshall to call a timeout when the Bobcats cut the Tigers’ lead to 23-22. Still, Marshall wasted no time after the timeout and scored consecutive points to seal the win.

Kezlyn Pinckney led the Tigers’ back row defensively with 18 digs in the match while Reese Drake added another 17. 

Marshall’s victory improves its record to 17-4 on the seasons they head into the final stretch. The Tigers will host one more regular-season home match on Saturday against Class 4A Moorhead (11-6) at 2:30 p.m. From there, they’ll go on the road to take on No. 6 Alexandria before concluding the regular season at the Lakeville North Tournament.

“It’s going to be tough. The teams that we’re going to be looking at from here on out are just not going to give you room to breathe,” Westby said. “We need to sharpen a lot of things up.”