Photos by Samantha Davis: The No. 1 Minneota volleyball team celebrates a first set victory against No. 4 Canby Tuesday night in the Section 3A North subsection semifinal at SMSU. The Vikings won 3-0, and next advance to the division's championship. Below: Minneota's Sarah Gruenes goes up for a hit. Below: Canby senior Brynn Kockelman goes in for a dig. Below: Canby's Karlie Wollum goes up for hit. Below: Minneota's Eden Meagher dives to save the ball. Below: The Minneota volleyball bench cheers after winning a point.

MARSHALL — The top-seeded Minneota volleyball team is returning to the Section 3A North subsection championship for the ninth straight season after defeating No. 4 Canby in three sets Tuesday night in the semifinals 30-28, 25-14 and 25-16. The Vikings are one win away from reaching the section title match to compete for a state tournament appearance for the second season in a row. With the loss, Canby ends its season 20-11 overall, and spent a majority of the year ranked top 6 in the state.

“We’ve been working really hard for this one, and putting in a lot of time, a lot of work and a lot of focus on what we needed to do to execute our game against Canby,” Minneota head coach Kaley Buysse said. “These girls were absolutely ready, and for them to come out and just perform, do what we needed to do to come out on top, it’s so rewarding. At the end of this game, I am just so proud of them.”

The first set saw numerous ties and lead changes, going to extra points, to show the competitive nature between the two teams early on. Yet, the Vikings controlled the second set while taking a lead midway through the third to finish the night.

“This definitely feels great,” Minneota senior Sarah Gruenes said. “Seeing as we lost them earlier in the season, it just means so much more.”

Minneota and Canby, who are also ranked No. 2 and No. 5 in Class A, had met twice prior in the regular season. The Vikings took the first meeting in two sets at a weekend tournament on Sept. 20 in Burnsville, while the Lancers prevailed for a five-set victory in response on Oct. 2.

“We had high expectations coming in … I think both teams made big improvements [since the last time we played each other],” Canby head coach Jenai Wright said. “That first set … I think it would have gone either way. It could have gone into our favor, but we came out hard right away. I was proud of our kids. Minneota is tough. They have experienced the dance, and they know what it takes to get it done, and they did that tonight.”

Karlie Wollum led Canby with nine kills to her 14 digs. Emily Nelson and Brynn Kockelman both tallied five kills, while Nelson had a team-high three aces and 14 set assists, while Kockelman had another 10 digs and 11 assists. Jaryn Houseman led with 16 digs, as did Grace Hansen with three blocks.

For Minneota, Jaylyn Coequyt led with 12 kills, while Abby Rolbiecki and Libby Sussner shared a team-high 13 digs. Eden Meagher finished with 10 kills and nine digs, while Autum Anderson also recorded 10 digs. Meagher and Gruenes had three blocks each, while Gruenes also had eight kills.

The R/A Facility was packed with fans on both sides of the bleachers with large student sections in attendance, feeding into the competitive atmosphere right away.

“We were telling everybody at school, like come to the game and come support,” Gruenes said. “It just means so much to have everybody come and back us and be right there supporting us.”

Continuing her season-success from the service line, Canby’s Nelson started the match with back-to-back aces, followed with a kill from Amya Verhelst for a 3-0 lead.

The Vikings began to catch up after facing an early deficit of 5 points with the help of kills from Gruenes and Leah Coequyt to tie the score, 10-10.

“We knew they [Canby] were going to come out fighting,” Gruenes said. “We had to come up with a lot of energy, just bring our all and give it our all, because it could very well be our last game. We just needed to bring everything.”

There were several long rallies throughout the entire match, especially in the opening set. Minneota slightly trailed a majority of the first set, with a kill from Hansen giving Canby a 15-11 edge. After a timeout, Minneota immediately responded with a Meagher kill and Sussner ace.

Sussner led Minneota with three aces and 21 set assists, and Sophie Gillund followed with 14 assists.

The set became tied at 21, and eventually 27-27. Canby’s Nelson and Minneota’s Gruenes traded kills, before the Vikings took away the set after an Anderson ace and Meagher kill.

“We hustled so much, and there were just so many hustle plays that brought energy to everybody and we fed off that,” Gruenes said.

Minneota settled in quickly in the second set, flustering the Lancers early on with a 6-0 run to start.

Canby began to struggle with errors, finding themselves needing to erase a deficit as the Vikings turned the tables from the opening set.

“We had a lot of unforced errors in sets two and three, but boy, I think Minneota, they just brought it … I don’t think our serving errors helped us in the first set, but it was still a battle,” Wright said. “Whatever we put at them, they had an answer for.”

A block from Verhelst ended Minneota’s run, while Gruenes had a pair of kills to keep the Vikings in front, 13-6.

The Lancers fought back with an ace from Houseman and a kill from Nelson, down 16-10, yet Minneota went on another run to bolster a 21-12 lead when Jaylyn Coequyt showed up big toward the end of the set with a trio of kills.

Both teams played with high intensity on the defensive end, with numerous diving saves, along with a balanced team-effort on the offensive end in the match’s entirety.

“Our defense did a really good job of just trusting each other and truly not letting anything hit the floor. We were pushing, diving and getting as far as we possibly could to make sure we were getting under some of those balls, and just simply taking ownership of where we needed to be,” Buysse said. “We were defending so well. If we weren’t getting touches up on the block up front, we were getting some really good digs behind it. It was obviously a huge benefit to our success.”

With 3 points to finish the set, a Canby receiving error and two Jaylyn Coequyt kills put the Vikings up 2-0.

“We came in pretty slow. It took us a little bit to adjust to the environment, just the big feel of the R/A, the crowd, all the things. Honestly, we just needed to settle in,” Buysse said of Minneota’s turnaround between sets. “We settled in in those next sets and really got our serve-receive passes up above the 10-foot line, our setters were able to run our offense and move that ball around.”

With the Lancers in desperate need to take a set, and Minneota one away from a sweep, the two again traded points to open the third at 6-6.

An ace from Madison Minnehan gave Minneota an 8-6 edge, which quickly extended to 15-7 following kills from Meagher and Gruenes with a Lancers’ hitting error.

Anderson served another ace to force a Canby timeout, to which the Lancers responded out of on with 3 consecutive points.

Canby’s Kockelman hit a kill, but with a 21-14 lead, Minneota secured the win to advance after a pair of Jaylyn Coequyt kills, a Canby hitting and service errors.

“We knew we had to show up. We started pretty slow in that last one [match against Canby in a 3-2 loss]. We let Canby go on some big runs, and honestly, really got in our heads … Canby won that game fair and square,” Buysse said. “We were going to have to come out fighting. They’ve got a lot of girls that do a lot of really good things, a lot of seniors. They are a stacked team, and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. It was a battle.”

The Lancers graduate a strong group of seniors in Nelson, Kockelman, Wollum, Addison Driessen, Hansen, Verhelst, Courtney Antony and Houseman.

“I’m just so proud of this coachable squad,” Wright said. “When you have a senior-older squad, they know expectations. They know the culture, and they just know what they need to do to get the job done. I think they were very good leaders for our young people coming up, and they’re really going to be missed.”

Minneota was given the first seed in the tournament after spending most of the season as the top-ranked team in Class A, finishing ranked 2nd. Canby was seeded fourth despite being ranked No. 5 in Class A with a 19-10 record. Two of those 10 losses came against second-seeded Central Minnesota Christian and No. 3 MACCRAY.

The Vikings are looking to repeat as section champions and earn a state tournament bid for the 17th time in program history, and fourth time in the last five years. They were state runners-up last year to Mayer Lutheran.

“Whoever we play, we just need to bring everything,” Gruenes said about moving forward. “Every game from now on could be our last game. So, just bringing it all by for every single game, leaving it all on the court.”

Minneota (26-6) will next face No. 3 MACCRAY (24-7) in the subsection championship on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The winner from there will advance to the section championship on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with a trip to state on the line. MACCRAY swept CMC in Tuesday’s semifinals, after the Vikings’ match.

The Vikings and Wolverines met each other once over the regular season on Sept. 23, with Minneota winning in three sets 25-15, 25-14 and 25-10.

“We are going to enjoy tonight’s win right now … It’s going to be a battle. They’re [CMC or MACCRAY] two really good teams. They’re two super scrappy teams,” Buysse said. “Tomorrow, we got to get back in the gym, get back to work and get a new game plan together. We’re going to enjoy this now, but tomorrow is a new day and we are going to focus.”