Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall’s Nora Holmgren (15), Laurel Ryks (11), Avery Fahl (1), Kyah Pinckney (3) and Reese Drake celebrate a point during the Southwest Challenge championship round against Chanhassen on Saturday at Marshall High School.

MARSHALL — Heading into this weekend’s Southwest Challenge volleyball tournament, a win was a long time coming for the hosting Marshall Tigers. The last time Marshall emerged from the elite field that it hosts at the annual tournament was 2009, with the 16-year drought being longer than some of the players on the roster have been alive.

“I think it’s very, very, very exciting, and we’re obviously proud of ourselves, but we just said that we don’t want this to be the highlight of our season,” Marshall middle blocker and setter Avery Fahl said. “We want to do more and get better every single day.”

It wasn’t an easy path for Marshall. After defeating Fergus Falls 25-17, 25-11 and Andover 25-9, 25-12 on Friday, the Tigers took on three teams ranked in the top 10 of Class 4A on Saturday.

The Tigers opened their run in the championship bracket against No. 7 Prior Lake. The Lakers ended Marshall’s perfect streak of 23 consecutive sets won to start the season, but Marshall still came away with a 25-8, 23-25, 15-13 win to advance to the tournament semifinals.

“It’s just really enjoyable playing against more competition, just knowing that every game you come into is going to be a hard team,” Marshall libero Kezlyn Pinckney said. “It just gets harder as the day goes on, so it’s just fun that we all came together and fought hard for each other until the end.”

Photo by Jake McNeill: the Marshall volleyball team poses with its trophies after claiming its first Southwest Challenge championship since 2009.

Photo by Jake McNeill: the Marshall volleyball team poses with its trophies after claiming its first Southwest Challenge championship since 2009.

Marshall head coach Dan Westby attributed his team’s consistency throughout the tournament to its ability to limit its errors, saying that any time a team can avoid miscues, it will be able to hang around for a chance to win.

The Tigers then took on No. 4 Lakeville South — ranked No. 1 at the time — in a straight-sets 25-14, 25-19 win to set up a rematch against No. 2 Chanhassen, a team Marshall swept on Aug. 22, in the championship round.

Any thought of Chanhassen coming back for revenge on the Tigers was quickly quashed. Marshall won each of the two sets 25-16 to claim its first Southwest Challenge championship in 16 years.

“I think the biggest drive for our team was… coach [Dan Westby] pulled us together before the tournament and told us that it’s been 16 years since we’ve won. So we said it’s about dang time,” setter Brooke Gillingham said. “That was our mentality going into it. We’re going to get this done. Doesn’t matter who our opponent is across the net, we’re plowing through everybody.”

Gillingham added that it felt like an honor to be part of the team to get Marshall back as champions in its home tournament because the field of teams is so well-respected across the state.

Westby said the goal was to see the Tigers come out with resolve and felt like his team did a good job of putting that together against quality opponents, but that the team still has bigger goals in mind for the future.

Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall setter Brooke Gillingham reacts to the clinching point of the championship match.

Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall setter Brooke Gillingham reacts to the clinching point of the championship match.

Gillingham and Fahl led Marshall in set assists over the course of the tournament, with 72 and 68, respectively, while Fahl’s eight ace blocks were also a team-best, along with seven from Nora Holmgren.

In the back row, Kezlyn Pinckney led the Tigers’ efforts with 39 digs, but it was a team effort all around. Reese Drake and Avery Fahl contributed 19 and 16, respectively, while Kyah Pinckney, Julia Fahl and Gillingham each tallied another 14 digs.

Offensively, Drake led the team with 50 kills over the course of the tournament, followed by 41 from Avery Fahl and 35 from Julia Fahl. Drake also served up eight aces on 60 attempts while Kezlyn Pinckney and Gillingham came up with another five and four service aces.

“A lot of people put a lot of time and energy into this tournament. Our coaching staff, coach [Alex] Boddy did a lion’s share of the work this year, and it takes a lot of work to pull something like this off,” Westby said. “The community did a great job, and our parents and our coaching staff, so it really makes for a great tournament for everybody.”

Marshall remains a perfect 11-0 on the season, with seven of those wins coming against ranked opponents. The Tigers next host St. Peter (4-5) tonight at 7:15 p.m.

RTR, 10th place

The Russell-Tyler-Ruthton volleyball team entered the second day of play at the Southwest Challenge in the 9th place bracket and made it up to the championship round, finishing in 10th out of 32 teams at the tournament.

The No. 3 Knights upset Class 4A No. 10 in three sets to start the tournament, 25-20, 27-29, 15-12, to start the tournament on Friday before getting knocked out of the championship bracket with a 25-16, 25-20 to Class 4A No. 2 and tournament runner-up Chanhassen.

On the second day of play, RTR took down Alexandria 25-23, 22-25, 15-7 and picked up a win over Class A No. 1 Minneota in straight sets, 25-23, 30-28. The Knights’ run ended with a 26-24, 25-14 loss to Benilde-St. Margaret’s in the ninth-place match.

Laken Baartman led the Knights’ defensive back row with 81 digs over the course of the tournament while Brynn Borresen and Paisley Thooft defended up front with seven and six bloc,s respectively.

Dru Ellefson was the team’s leading setter with 15 assists. On the finishing end, Sara and Paisley Thooft led the team with 38 and 31 kills, respectively.

RTR now sits at 6-4 on the season after an 0-2 start and hosts Mountain Lake Area-Comfrey (2-5) tonight at 7:15 p.m.

Minneota, 11th place

Strong competition left Minneota with an 11th place finish at the Southwest Challenge over the weekend. The Vikings swept Eastview 25-14, 25-15 on Friday before dropping to the 9th place bracket with a 25-22, 23-25, 15-12 loss to Class 3A No. 2 Delano.

On Saturday, Minneota started with a 25-22, 19-25, 15-6 win over St. Michael-Albertville but fell to the 11th-place game with a straight-sets loss to RTR, 25-23, 30-28. The Vikings closed the tournament on a high note with a 29-27, 25-15 win over Chaska.

Abby Rolbiecki and Eden Meagher led the Viking back row with 39 and 34 digs. Meagher was also Minneota’s leading hitter with 42 kills in the tournament.

Libby Sussner and Sophie Gillund split setting duties, with 60 and 49 set assists, respectively.

Minneota now sits at 6-2 on the season and hosts Central Minnesota Christian (6-2) for its next match tonight at 7:15 p.m.

Canby, 18th place

Canby’s strong slate of opponents left it unable to make a run in the Southwest Challenge over the weekend. The Lancers were matched up against Class 4A No. 9 Prior Lake in the opening round, falling 25-17, 25-17 to be eliminated from finishing in the top half.

From there, the Lancers shined. Canby defeated Sioux Falls Roosevelt (S.D.) 25-23, 25-13 to close out Friday night and opened Saturday with a 25-23, 25-21 win over Fergus Falls. The Lancers also defeated Northfield 25-17, 25-27, 15-13 to get to the 17th place match, but fell 25-15, 26-24 to Class 4A No. 10 Champlin Park.

The Lancers next host MACCRAY tonight at 7:15 p.m.

TMB, 28th place

The Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panthers ended a four-match skid at the Southwest Minnesota Challenge over the weekend, but couldn’t turn it into any momentum.

The Panthers were defeated by 4A No. 1 Lakeville North 25-11, 25-5 to start the tournament and fell 25-22, 25-20 to LeSeuer-Henderson to close out Friday.

TMB’s Saturday started strong with a 25-19, 25-18 win over Medford, but their tournament ended with straight-sets losses to River Falls (Wis.) and Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa.

TMB next takes on Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg (2-4) tonight at 7:15 p.m. in Tracy.