Alexandria, Marshall advance to play for Class 3A volleyball championship ... plus other semifinals results

No. 2 Chatfield’s goal this season was to not let any match go to five sets.

The Golden Gophers hadn’t, until Friday.

No. 3 Hawley pushed them to five and dominated defensively to take the fifth set, winning 25-23, 15-25, 20-25, 25-18, 15-10 in the Class 2A semifinals of the volleyball state tournament. After finishing third at state last season, the Nuggets (28-5) head to their first title game in their second trip to Xcel Energy Center.

After the match, Hawley junior middle blocker Annaka Johnson sighed and rested her head on the news conference table.

“That dance party got me,” she said.

A dance party well deserved. Johnson had 15 kills and eight block assists, helping the Nuggets outblock Chatfield 12-2.

“We knew they were going to come in hitting really hard,” Johnson said. “It was all on us to be determined to get there and try to shut it down.”

Sophomore outside hitter Katarina Vetter led the Nuggets in kills with 16, and senior setter Ingrid Rustad had 25 assists and 20 digs.

Hawley had, arguably, the largest and loudest entourage of supporters on Friday, despite being almost a four-hour drive northwest.

“The whole community, they’re knowing we could get there, the whole way, believing in us,” junior libero Hannah Stotts said.

Chatfield (29-5) gets the chance to play for third in its program’s first trip to state. Senior outside hitter Jaelyn LaPlante had a match-high 19 kills and four service aces.

“I think we were still conditioned enough to fight through those five sets, but it’s a lot faster game in that fifth set,” LaPlante said. “You’ve got to start right away.”

The Stars of Southwest Christian were out Friday night, sweeping top-seeded Albany 25-12, 25-18, 25-17 at Xcel Energy Center for a spot in the Class 2A state championship match.

A year ago, Southwest Christian (21-12) lost in the semifinals to Rush City, leaning on its 10 seniors to take third in the state tournament. And then the seniors did what seniors do: graduate. Any senior’s loss is felt — 10, even more so.

So Southwest Christian, the 2013 state champion, hadn’t marked a sixth trip to state as a definitive heading into the season.

“I was like, ‘OK, we’re going to rebuild. We got this. We’re still going to be good,’ ” said junior middle Breanna Beckering, whose cousin, Kylie Beckering, was a part of that senior cohort. “I wasn’t expecting us to go this far, but … we’ve really become a team.”

Beckering’s younger cousin, sophomore outsider hitter Avery Beckering, had 12 kills and nine digs against Albany. Claire Lemkull led the Stars with 17 kills. Senior setter Libby Weckman chipped in 32 assists and junior libero Lauren Paradise 14 digs.

After losing 2-0 to Albany in mid-September, the Stars did their homework. They played a tough blocks, limiting Albany to 6.2% hitting, then ran a quick attack through the middle on the other side of the ball.

Albany (30-4) gets a shot at a third-place finish in its first trip to state since 2005.

“We’ve had such a good season, and obviously we wanted to win that game, but now that’s not an option,” senior setter Ellery Eshermann said. “The best that we can do tomorrow is just go out there and play like we have been playing. Because obviously today, that was just not the Albany Husky way.”

A volleyball tournament can take up a whole weekend. Players, parents and coaches know it. But last April, when Minneota head coach Hayley Fruin gave the team the choices for tournament dates in the fall and asked which they wanted to compete in, the Vikings had an answer.

All of ‘em.

All regular season, No. 2 Minneota challenged itself against the top teams in the state, from Class 1A to 4A, which paid off Friday in its state semifinal win over No. 6 Fillmore Central, 21-25, 26-24, 25-15, 26-24, at Xcel Energy Center.

The win books Minneota (24-11) a Saturday championship against No. 1 Mayer Lutheran — a rematch of the 2017, 2021 and 2022 Class 1A state finals. Minneota got the better of the Crusaders in 2021, one of the Vikings’ four state titles in their 15 prior trips to state.

“I’ve never been in a championship, just always cheering on the girls,” Minneota senior setter Nevaeh Hennen said. “You want it. Everyone wants it. So especially after last year [losing in the section championships], you want it so bad.”

Full of energy and serving with pace, Fillmore Central (18-16) took the first set and barreled out to a 23-16 lead in the second. But Minneota chipped away to steal the set and shift momentum in its favor.

Fruin likes to use her timeouts early, especially when the Vikings are down. In set four, down 15-9, she had none left. The Vikings didn’t need her.

“That’s 100% credit to [the players],” Fruin said. “I didn’t have to coach. They just found a way to win, point by point, and cut away in that lead.”

Junior outside hitter Eden Meagher finished with a match-high 15 kills for Minneota, while sophomore setter Libby Sussner had 20 assists and 15 digs for the Vikings.

Fillmore Central’s welcomed underdog status could only take the Falcons so far. By the fourth set, “we were definitely losing our gas,” said senior middle hitter Annika Mensink.

Fillmore Central wasn’t just the sixth seed in the 1A volleyball state tournament. The Falcons had been the sixth seed in their Section 1 tournament — not the statistical favorite to make it past the first round of their section playoffs, let alone to a state semifinal. But they’d retooled their roster before a strong postseason run, making it to state for the first time since 2014.

“We had a hitch in the middle of the season [losing six straight], so we knew that we were going to be seeded very high,” senior defensive specialist Lily Miller said. “We took that to our advantage, because in the section matches, six was our lucky number.”

Alexandria coach Mary Byrne didn’t say it right away, but she didn’t need to. Her team proved it on the court.

Alexandria pulled off the biggest shocker of this year’s volleyball state tournament, demolishing Delano in the Class 3A semifinals, 25-22, 25-17, 25-14.

Alexandria will face Marshall in the state championship Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

What made the outcome so eye-opening were the circumstances.

Delano was the No. 1 seed in Class 3A, a designation earned by virtue of a 31-0 record. Alexandria was seeded No. 5 with 10 losses.

A rout was indeed the expected result. But the winner was reversed.

Alexandria, taller and lankier than Delano, brushed off a 5-1 deficit in the first set by scoring 11 straight points to take the lead. The teams battled back and forth before Alexandria emerged with a 25-22 victory.

The rally shocked Delano, which had rarely trailed all season.

With confidence high, Alexandria rolled through the second set. Playing a fast, up-tempo style and tight defense, the Cardinals won the second set 25-17.

It marked the only time this season Delano had lost more than one set in a match.

Alexandria, cruising with a two-set lead, was never challenged in the third set, winning 25-14 to close out the match

“I was hoping the whole time that we would just flip a switch and come back stronger,” Delano junior Kayle Heinonen said. “But we didn’t.”

Had Delano won the first set, Cassie Wegman believes the outcome might have been different for her Tigers.

“It would have been awesome to take that first set,” she said. “I think that really would have changed the momentum.”

Bynre said Alexandria’s losses were largely the result of injuries. Now the team is healthy.

“It was our best match of the season, but we still haven’t reached the peak of what this team can do,” Byrne said. “We had a lot of injuries, and that kind of explains many of those losses. But the sky’s the limit for this team. They’re a very talented group and I’m just super proud of them.”

Marshall coach Dan Westby doesn’t come across as the outwardly expressive type. He blew that persona Friday.

Westby’s Tigers have won 10 state titles behind his trademark low-key style. Marshall beat Stewartville 25-22, 25-16, 25-16 in the 3A semifinals, keeping alive their pursuit of a fourth straight state championship.

So it came as a bit of a surprise when he broke down, forcing back tears when talking about the importance of his program’s success.

Marshall is a regular tournament entrant. That familiarity pays dividends at state tournament time.

“We just have a sense of comfort here,” said sophomore defensive specialist Kezlyn Pinckney. “We have very good fans that show up, so it’s almost like a home game here for us.”

Westby said making repeated state tournament appearances keeps the program at a high level.

“Younger kids come here and watch the older kids play and that puts the thought in their head, ‘Hey, I want to do that someday,’ ” Westby said.

It’s about more than winning state championships, Westby said. It’s all about the life experiences that accompany a tournament trip.

“I don’t take vacations. So this is my vacation for the year, coming to the state tournament. This is just such a great experience. I hope these kids really understand what a great deal this is,” he said, fighting emotion.

Part of playing volleyball for Marshall is growing up dreaming of playing for the Tigers.

“My family would always come up when I was little and watch the state tournament. It’s so fun to see those girls be successful, and you want to follow in their shoes and go along that path,” junior Resse Drake said.

Westby made sure the players recognize their responsibility to younger members of the community.

“I always worry, as a father and a grandpa, that, ‘Hey, are you taking care of the younger kids?’ ” Westby said. “And these girls do such a good job of that. When you get to the state tournament, you want the older players to show the younger ones this is how we do things when we get here, like going to bed on time, housekeeping, things like that.”

When Mayer Lutheran’s Marley Martin was asked about how it felt to earn a career high in kills during a state tournament semifinal, her answer was a bemused “Was it?”

Of course, the senior middle blocker wasn’t tallying up her kills midmatch. She was too busy scattering dangerous attacks across the court for the top-seeded Crusaders, en route to a 25-23, 23-25, 25-16, 25-14 win in the Class 1A semifinal over No. 4 West Central Area.

When told she had 25 kills for the four-time state champs, Martin covered her mouth. “Twenty-five kills?” she asked. That’s almost double her season’s previous high of 13.

“Oh my gosh,” she said, laughing.

“It feels absolutely awesome, just to be a role model on how to stick to your game, play to the best of your ability, not cracking under pressure,” Martin said. “Three areas feed into it, but it’s absolutely amazing to play at that high of a level.”

Martin is one of two seniors on the roster for Mayer Lutheran (30-5), but the team by no means lacks tournament experience. In their 18th trip to state, the Crusaders head to their fourth consecutive state title game, having lifted the trophy in 2021 before finishing as runner-up in 2022 and 2023.

That makes it Martin’s fourth trip, though her first playing without teammate and older sister Danica, who now plays at Concordia University in Nebraska.

“[Marley] wasn’t going to take anything from anyone today,” said head coach Joelle Grimsley, who celebrated her 800th win this season. “She had the look on her face, like she wants to get back there. She was not going to be playing for third or fourth tomorrow.”

Mayer Lutheran’s defense, led by 39 digs from junior libero Clara Keaveny, dealt with pressure from West Central Area All-State outside hitter Mya Foslien. Foslien, committed to Jamestown for college, has played through a broken hand for the past month and still recorded 21 kills for the Knights (28-5).

“She was supposed to be done, but she made the decision to want to finish her season,” West Central Area coach Missy Foslien said. “We’ve been careful [and] checking on it. This was important to her, but also the next few years are important to her, too.”