The volleyball team from Pequot Lakes is nothing if
not battle-tested. A year ago, the Patriots lost to Cannon Falls 3-0 in the
Class 2A state championship match, and that experience set them on the path
that led to Saturday’s return to the big stage at Xcel Energy Center.
The Patriots had survived two scary rounds in the
state tournament just to get to Saturday’s title match against Rush City, which
was also at state for the second year in row. Pequot Lakes lost the first two
sets against Redwood Valley in Thursday’s quarterfinals before rallying for a
3-2 win, and followed the same lose-lose-win-win-win format in beating
Caledonia 3-2 in Friday’s semifinals.
They didn’t mess around quite as much against Rush
City, sweeping to a 25-18, 25-22, 25-22 victory and their first state title.
Winning the final five sets at state put a big, impressive stamp on the
Patriots’ championship season.
“I just
think knowing that we're in the championship and how we finished last year we
were like, ‘OK, no messing around,’ ” said Pequot Lakes’ Isabel Larson. “ ‘This
is it. We want this, let's get it done. No more five-set matches. We know how
it's going to end so let's just make it quick.
“We've
proven all year that we can fight and I feel like this time we were just like,
‘Let's start the fight sooner so we can end it faster.’ ”
This was Pequot Lakes’ fourth appearance in the state
volleyball tournament, with trips in 1994 and 2019 before last season. Christine
Ganley, who has coached th sport for 18 years, said this team’s accomplishment
will be felt by all the players who came before them.
“We've
been on the brink before,” she said. “And I'm so proud of this team for
accomplishing something that many of the girls have tried as the program kept
building, but these guys finally did it. And all the past teams can be proud
because they built into this, and they finally did it for the whole program, the
school and community.”
The Patriots finished with a record of 30-5,
giving them a mark of 120-25 since the beginning of the 2019 season.
I visited the Patriots on the
second day of practice in August and wrote about their quest this fall. The
headline on that story read: Pequot Lakes Volleyball Hoping For An Even
Better Finish; Confidence Is High After Placing Second At State Last Season.
In that story (found here: https://shorturl.at/pGI59), senior libero
Kelsi Martini said, “Most of us had just been to the
state tournament to watch, and seeing that as a kid, you're like, ‘Oh my gosh,
I want to do that someday.’ So knowing that was something we can work for, I
think last year we all just competed in practice. And we were like, ‘OK, we
want to do this.’ And then our goals just kept becoming bigger.”
They finally achieved their biggest goal Saturday.
First Title For Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, Too
The volleyball team from Russell-Tyler-Ruthton came
into the Class 1A championship match a marked team, based on their victory over
perennial power Minneota in the Section 3 title match and No. 1 seed at state.
The Knights, at state for the first time, completed a magical season with a hard-fought
3-1 win over Mayer Lutheran.
“There
are so many generations (of volleyball players) that have put it out there, put
all that blood and tears out there and haven't gotten to this point,” said
Knights coach Daynica Brown. “And so just getting here at state was a dream for
many of them. And then to cap it off with a title? I mean, it was just amazing.”
--MSHSL senior content creator John Millea has been the leading
voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter
@MSHSLjohn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get
podcasts. Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
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