Photo by Samantha Davis: Minneota outside hitter Eden Meagher (6) goes up for a kill during a Camden Conference volleyball match against Tracy-Milroy-Balaton in Minneota on Tuesday, Sept. 16. The Vikings traveled to Burnsville for the Class A Showcase over the weekend, defeating three teams ranked top 10 in Class A to claim a first-place finish in the tournament.

BURNSVILLE — Facing a field full of the top Class A volleyball teams across Minnesota, the top-ranked Minneota Vikings come out of the Class A Showcase victorious this year. The Minneota Vikings swept four of the six opponents they played across the tournament, taking down Wabasso and Spring Grove on Friday and No. 8 Ada-Borup West, No. 6 Canby and No. 2 Mayer Lutheran on Saturday to earn a first-place finish.

Wabasso took the first set of the tournament against Minneota 32-30, but the Vikings turned it around with a 25-21 win in the second set and a 15-13 win in the third to keep momentum rolling.

Abby Rolbiecki led Minneota’s back row in the match with 11 digs, while Sarah Gruenes tied Jaylyn Coequyt with two blocks. Gruenes’ seven kills also trailed only Eden Meagher’s nine.

Libby Sussner and Sophie Gillund tallied 16 and 12 set assists, respectively.

The Vikings clicked into form from there with a 25-23, 25-11 sweep of Spring Grove. Coequyt recorded a match-leading eight kills, while Meagher added another six while tying Rolbiecki with seven digs.

Madison Minnehan served up four aces in the match while Leah Coequyt logged a pair of blocks.

Taking on No. 8 Ada-Borup West, Minneota needed no time to adjust to its first ranked opponent of the tournament, claiming a 25-19, 31-29 win.

Rolbiecki and Autumn Anderson led the back row with 13 and six digs, while Jaylyn Coequyt, Gruenes and Leah Coequyt finished with 12, eight and seven kills, respectively. Gruenes and Jaylyn Coequyt each also logged a pair of blocks, Rolbiecki served up a pair of aces and Sussner recorded 22 set assists.

Minneota faced off against No. 6 Canby in the tournament semifinals, setting up a rematch of last year’s 3A North subsection semifinals. The Vikings again came out on top, 25-17, 25-18, behind eight kills from Meagher and seven digs from Rolbiecki.

Jaryn Houseman recorded 13 digs for Canby while Emily Nelson and Karlie Wollum each chipped in six kills, as well as 10 set assists for Nelson.

Mayer Lutheran took on the Vikings in the tournament championship, another familiar matchup after Mayer Lutheran defeated Minneota in last year’s Class A state championship. The Vikings flipped the script this time around, however.

Minneota claimed the first set 25-23 before dropping the second by the same margin. In an extended tiebreaker, the Vikings eventually prevailed by a score of 16-14.

Rolbiecki shined in the championship round with 23 digs while Meagher slammed down 11 kills. Sussner and Gillund tied with a team-leading 13 set assists each, while Gruenes had a pair of blocks and five kills.

Jaylyn Coequyt also added in eight kills while Anderson contributed seven digs.

Minneota improves to 15-2 on the season and looks to continue its 10-match win streak into a battle against No. 5 MACCRAY (14-3) in Minneota tonight at 7:15 p.m.

No. 6 Canby, 4th place

After a strong start to the Class A Showcase on Friday, the Canby Lancers dropped each of their final three matches to settle for fourth place in the loaded field. The Lancers defeated Ely 25-17, 25-13 and No. 9 Kenyon-Wanamingo 25-10, 25-21 on Friday. They continued to advance to the gold bracket out of pool play despite a 26-24, 25-19 loss to No. 4 Russell-Tyler-Ruthton to start the day on Saturday, and fell 25-17, 25-18 to No. 1 Minneota and 25-17, 25-19 to No. 3 Fillmore Central from there.

In the tournament opener, Karlie Wollum led the way with five kills while Emily Nelson, Brynn Kockelman and Grace Hansen each added another four. Wollum’s eight digs also trailed only Jaryn Houseman’s 11.

Houseman finished with 21 digs in the win over Kenyon-Wanamingo, while Wollum added another 11 digs with eight kills. Nelson and Kockelman also chipped in nine and six kills, respectively.

Nelson’s 19 set assists were a match high.

In the Lancers’ pool-play finale, Kockelman tallied eight kills while Nelson and Wollum each added another seven in the loss to RTR. Nelson and Kockelman also added 17 and 11 set assists, respectively.

Ava Karbo and Laken Baartman led the Knights with nine kills and 12 digs, respectively.

In its first bracket-play match against Minneota, the Lancers were led by Houseman’s 13 digs and Wollum’s seven. Wollum also tied Nelson for a team-leading six kills.

Canby wrapped up the tournament with a loss to Fillmore Central, in which Wollum logged 12 digs and three kills, while Nelson and Kockelman contributed five kills each.

Saturday’s three-game skid drops Canby to 9-8 on the season. The Lancers will look to bounce back tonight when they host Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg (4-6) at 7:15 p.m.

No. 4 RTR, 5th place

Despite falling on the wrong side of a three-way tie to conclude pool play at this weekend’s Class A Showcase, the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton volleyball team put its strongest possible finish together on Saturday, taking down a pair of ranked opponents to finish fifth in the loaded field behind the All-Tournament play of Ava Karbo.

Strong defense wasn’t enough for RTR to claim a victory in its opener against No. 9 Kenyon-Wanamingo, falling 25-20, 25-21. Laken Baartman tallied 15 digs in the match, followed by 10 from Sara Thooft and another nine each from Makenna Hess and Dru Ellefson. The Knights didn’t lose the rest of the tournament, but the loss eventually took them out of title contention.

Ellefson also contributed 19 set assists in the match while Thooft and Karbo contributed eight kills each.

The Knights found their stride with a 25-20, 25-8 win over Ely, led by 16 set assists from Ellefson that resulted in five kills each from Karbo and Paisley and Sara Thooft.

Baartman again led the back row with 10 digs while Ellefson and Brezlyn Buchert served up three and two aces, respectively.

The Knights closed out pool play strong with a 26-24, 26-19 win over No. 6 Canby, who advanced to the gold bracket ahead of them via a tiebreaker. Karbo notched nine kills in the win, Baartman contributed 12 digs and Ellefson facilitated the offense with 18 set assists.

In its pool play opener, the Knights swept No. 9 Ada-Borup West 25-17, 25-15 behind 10 kills from Sara Thooft and another seven from Brynn Borresen. Makenna Hess led the back row with 10 digs while Ellefson logged 19 set assists.

RTR took on No. 5 MACCRAY in the fifth-place match and pulled out a 25-22, 25-19 win behind Sara Thooft’s 10 kills, nine digs and two service aces. Karbo also contributed three blocks while Paisley Thooft logged two blocks and four kills.

RTR now sits at 14-5 on the season and welcomes Edgerton (4-12) into Tyler tonight at 7:15 p.m.

WWG, 10th place

The Westbrook-Walnut Grove performed well at this past weekend’s Class A Showcase, winning two of their five matches to finish in 10th.

The Chargers got off to a rocky start on Friday, dropping each of their first two matches. WWG fell 25-18, 25-17 to No. 3 Fillmore Central, with Carlie Ross contributing a team-high nine digs and tying Leah Carter for a team-high with four kills. Hadley Jenniges and Leah VanDeWiele each also added seven digs, as well as seven set assists for Jenniges.

No. 5 MACCRAY defeated the Chargers 25-20, 25-18 in the second match of pool play despite 14 digs from VanDeWiele and eight set assists from Jenniges.

WWG started to turn its luck around with a 25-19, 25-23 win over Cleveland to close out pool play. Natasha Wahl and Leah VanDeWiele each logged eight digs in the match while Ross contributed nine kills and three service aces. Jenniges also made an impact with 16 set assists, a pair of service aces and a solo block.

In their first bracket match, the Chargers took on Pine River Backus and escaped with a 25-20, 25-21 win. Ross led the way with eight kills and tied Sydney Foster with seven digs, trailing only VanDeWiele’s nine. Jenniges also had 17 set assists in the match.

In the ninth-place match, the Chargers faced off another ranked opponent in No. 9 Kenyon-Wanamingo. The Chargers took the first set 25-21, but the Chargers took the next two 25-14 and 15-13 to claim the win.

Ross and Carter each had 10 kills in the match while Wahl and Jenniges finished with 18 and 13 digs, respectively.

Jenniges also added 26 set assists in the match.

WWG now sits at 11-5 on the season and hosts Murray County Central (7-4) tonight at 7:15 p.m. in Westbrook.

Wabasso, 13th place

The Wabasso volleyball team struggled at this year’s Class A Showcase, dropping each of its first three matches before winning its final two to finish 13th.

The Rabbits played competitive volleyball against a pair of top-flight teams to start the tournament, but fell 30-32, 25-18, 15-12 to No. 1 Minneota and 21-25, 25-17, 15-11 to No. 8 Ada-Borup West. The Rabbits closed out pool play with a straight-sets loss to Spring Grove, 25-19, 25-11.

Wabasso bounced back in bracket play with a pair of sweeps. The Rabbits defeated Ely 25-20, 25-18 and Cleveland 25-18, 25-18.

Audrey Johnson led the Wabasso defense with 49 digs and six service aces while Kenly Guetter added another 33. Guetter’s 29 kills were also second only to Carly Fenger’s 32.

Fenger tied Camryn Irlbeck with a team-leading seven blocks, and Irlbeck also added 25 kills over the course of the tournament.

Sara Carlson facilitated the attack with 104 assists at the showcase, and her five service aces trailed only Johnson and Brand’s six each.

Carlson and Brand each notched 24 digs in the tournament.

Wabasso is now 10-8 on the year and will look to get a few more games above .500 when it hosts Cedar Mountain (8-4) tonight at 7 p.m.