Morgan Hennen dove to the floor to try and save the ball during the win over RTR Tuesday night.

Vikings back in Section 3A North finals

•Beat Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, 3-0

Russell-Tyler-Ruthton threw a scare into the Minneota Vikings in the Section 3A North semifinals.

They came out fire up, took a 10-4 lead and had the No. 1 Vikings back on their heels.

But Minneota rallied back for a 25-16 win, then rolled the rest of the way to the North finals with 25-18 and 25-9 set wins to take the match 3-0.

In the second match of the evening, Canby spotted Lakeview a 2-0 lead, then came back to win the final three sets and advance to the North finals with a 3-2 win.

The final scores were: 19-25; 23-25; 29-27; 25-15 and 17-15.

Minneota and Canby will play for the North Section 3A title on Thursday at SMSU in Marshall. Game time is 6 p.m.

"We didn't start out the game well but we got fire up and came back," said sophomore hitter Natalee Rolbiecki, who led the team with 14 kills.

"I think the nerves got to us a little bit," said Minneota Coach Hayley Fruin. "But I have these three veterans players, (Abby Hennen, Rolbiecki and Morgan Hennen) and I called them together and told them to keep everyone calm," she added.

After that initial flurry by RTR, Minneota took control and put the Knights away for the third time this year.

Trailing 16-15 in that first set, Morgan Hennen went to the serving line. Then, with Rolbiecki and Abby Frie taking control of the net, Morgan Hennen served the rest of the game with 10 straight serves. During one flurry, Frie had a huge block, Hennen served an ace and Rolbiecki did the rest. In the middle of that streak setter McKenna Yost flicked the ball over the net to keep Hennen's serving rally alive.

Coach Fruin was impressed with the way her troops weathered the storm. "It was a little rough, but they didn't get down on each other. During that first set the coach told her plays, "This is not the team we are. After that they went on a run and had no more errors," she said.

Abby Hennen served six straight points in the second set and when Rolbiecki slammed a block back at RTR, Minneota led, 16-8. They held the advantage and took the second game win.

"We have high expectations of Natalee (Rolbiecki). She gives us leadership, she's always talking to her teammates and is always calm," Coach Fruin said.

Rolbiecki also has helped middle hitter Abby Frie rise to become a dominant force in the middle. "She's become a good hitter and opens it up on the left side and right side for us," Rolbiecki said about teammate Frie.

"Frie has become tough to stop," added Coach Fruin.

The two, along with Abby Rost have been working on blocking in practice and now it's paying off. They had five blocks for points.

The final set became easiest of all with the Vikings coasting to a 25-9 win. At one stretch Abby Hennen served five straight, including a pair of aces. On the night she served 22 of 22 with four aces.

"Everybody had over five kills," Coach Fruin smiled. "We're a tough team when they're balanced like that," she added.

In the Section 3A South, Adrian beat Westbrook-Walnut Grove 3-1 and Tracy-Milroy-Balaton bested Murray County Central, 3-2.

That sets up a South Championship game at 7:30 p.m. Thursday between Tracy-M-B and Adrian.

Statistics:

SERVING: (No. good, aces) Abby Hennen 22-22-4; Abby Rost 11-10-0; Morgan Hennen 18-18-1.

BLOCKS: Rost 2, Rolbiecki 2, Abby Frie 1.

KILLS: Rolbiecki 14; Abby Hennen 9, Frie 8, Morgan Hennen 6.

DIGS: Abby Hennen 14, Robiecki 13, McKenzie Tolk 8.

SET ASSISTS: McKenna Yost 36; Ireland Stassen 5.

 

 

 
 

 

Abby Rost went to one kneed to set the ball back up for her teammates

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