Photo by Jake McNeill: Minneota outside hitter Elivia Faris, center, celebrates with her teammates after the top-seeded Vikings defeated Canby in the Section 3A North championship match at Southwest Minnesota State University’s R/A Facility on Thursday in Marshall.

MARSHALL — For the eighth consecutive season, the Minneota volleyball team is returning to the section championship match. The top-seeded Vikings withstood a tough No. 2 Canby team to claim a 25-23, 19-25, 25-19, 25-22 victory and continue their reign as the queens of the North.

“It’s hard as a coach because you feel bad for the kids a little that the expectation is to get to that section final every single year, and that pressure is on you and you’ve got a big target on your back,” Minneota head coach Hayley Fruin said. “They also just know that they need to do a little bit more in the offseason. Tonight, I think they just came in with the energy that we needed. The first two playoff games we had a little bit of nerves and tonight we played really confident out there.”

Thursday’s match was a rematch of the 2023 North subsection championship, in which Canby took a 2-0 lead before Minneota claimed three consecutive sets to steal the victory and advance to the section title match.

“It’s never a given, it’s always worked for, and I’m proud to be a Minneota Viking,” outside hitter Eden Meagher said after the match. “We all wanted it. Last year[‘s section championship loss] was a letdown, so we’ve just go to get going. We have nothing to lose. We’re all young, we all want it, so just got to go for it.”

“We have high expectations at all times and we really thought, coming off Tuesday, that this was going to be our night,” Canby head coach Jenai Wright said. “Unfortunately, we did not service receive very well, we got out of system at times, and boy, that first set was a big momentum-breaker for us. I think the girls played their hearts out but we just didn’t get it done tonight.”

This time around, Elivia Faris gave Minneota an early jolt of momentum when she got a kill and a service ace. Nevaeh Hennen got another shortly thereafter and the Lancers called their first timeout trailing 7-3.

The Vikings continued to build their lead up to 10-4 before the Lancers rallied back to within two points, 10-8. An Emily Nelson kill made it a one-point match before Sarah Gruenes ended the Viking drought with a kill of her own.

The Vikings got another point before Nelson took over with an emphatic kill, a block and another kill to tie the match up at 12-12. A Viking side out gave Canby its first lead of the night and Minneota was caught out of rotation to make it 14-12 before a Faris kill stopped the bleeding.

Canby built its lead up to 4 points, 19-15, when consecutive Lancer hits failed to cross the net. After the Lancers scored a point to stop the skid, they had a third hit that failed to get to Minneota’s side of the court, prompting a Lancer timeout.

The Vikings got each of the first two points out of the timeout to tie it up before a Brynn Kockelman kill got Canby back ahead. The teams battled back and forth until a Hansen kill gave the Lancers a 23-22 lead. From there, however, a service error knotted things back up. The Vikings pushed ahead, though, and a Jaylyn Coequyt tip turned into the set-sealing point in the 25-23 win.

Minneota has a plethora of talented hitters, leaving plenty of players with solid kill totals due to their ability to spread the ball around. Libby Sussner and Nevaeh Hennen tallied 24 and 22 set assists respectively, while Meagher and Faris led the team with 14 and 12 kills respectively. Coequyt and Sarah Gruenes also contributed nine and eight, as well as tying Meagher and Natalie Ratajczak with one block apiece.

“These guys just kind of knew that we’ve got such a balanced attack and we use everybody. We were going to play smart volleyball tonight and, win or lose, we were going to leave it all on the court,” Fruin said. “There’s just this vibe that you get in the locker room before the game, you could tell that these girls were ready. They were prepared to play against a very, very, very talented Canby team, and I respect the heck out of that team. They are so good, so I’m just happy that our girls came confident tonight.”

While the first set was competitive throughout, the second set was played as tight as can be. Neither team led by more than a point until the game was tied at 7-7. It wasn’t until a Minneota violation that Canby took the set’s first multi-point lead at 9-7, prompting a Viking timeout.

Faris got a kill for Minneota out of the break, but a pair of Lancer points, including a kill from Wollum, increased the Lancer lead to 11-8.

Canby’s lead steadily grew from there. Minneota called its final timeout after a Wollum kill made the score 17-11 and a Noyes kill and a Hansen block made the score 19-12.

Minneota didn’t go down easy, scoring consecutive points to force the Lancers to talk things over, but the Lancers held off the rally and a Kockelman kill and Minneota net violation gave Canby a 25-19 win.

Wollum was nearly unstoppable in the loss, finishing with 20 kills to lead the Lancers. Nelson and Kockelman also contributed 18 and 14 respectively, with Kockelman also tallying 31 set assists to Nelson’s 27.

Libero Abby Rolbiecki once again led a stellar Minneota back row effort with 23 digs. Alongside her, Meagher and Sussner also contributed 17 and 15. Aliyah Rangaard and Wollum led the Canby back row with 18 and 17 digs.

After going down in the second set, Minneota showed its resiliency by scoring each of the first 3 points of the third set and 5 of the first 6, prompting a Lancer timeout. Canby slowed down the runaway train but couldn’t stop it, as the Vikings steadily maintained a narrow lead for the remainder of the set. 

Minneota’s lead never eclipsed the 6-point mark but Canby was never in a position to tie the set either, with a Lancer service error cemeinting the 25-19 win and bringing the Vikings within a set of returning to the section final.

The fourth set played out much like the third. Minneota again jumped out to an early lead but again Canby stayed competitive throughout. They called their final timeout trailing 18-12, but a Kockelman kill out of the huddle sparked a 4-1 Lancer run to get back within 3 points.

Faris came up with another key kill to slow the bleeding but Canby still battled its way back, with a Kockelman kill making the score 22-20 in favor of Minneota. Still, a 3-0 Viking run capped off by a Coequyt kill sent Minneota back to the 3A championship.

Minneota improves to 23-9 with the win and will now prepare to take on Westbrook-Walnut Grove (23-4) in the section 3A title match.

“Westbrook is a very talented team. They proved that tonight and they’ve proven that through the year, they just keep getting better,” Fruin said. “We’ve got to collect ourselves here tonight, go in tomorrow and just prepare ourselves for Saturday because we’ve got to come out and be ready to go. They’re a great team and they deserve to be there.”

Canby finishes its season at 24-7. While the Lancers fell short this time around, they’ll field a large squad of returners next year in the hope of returning to this point.

“We need to break through,” Wright said. “We’ve got a lot of juniors that are coming back that are still hungry, but we’ve just got to get past this level and I think that this program has that ability.”

Canby graduates three seniors in Noyes, Rangaard and Hentges.

“I think it’s just the overall positive attitude that they brought to practice,” Wright said when asked what the class of 2025 has brought to the team, saying that Hentges brought some solid hitting to the right side, Noyes played well after coming off an injury last season and that Rangaard helped keep practice nice and light as the team’s starting libero.

“We play better when we’re not too tense and I think tonight, we were a little too hard on ourselves. But unless you win the state tournament, you’re going to end on a loss,” Wright said. “I’m just really proud of these Lancers. A lot of times unstoppable, just didn’t get it done tonight.”