It's been quite a season for Northfield.
The Raiders (18-2, 8-0) won their first 13 games, beating then-No. 1-4A Wayzata and current No. 2-4A Lakeville North on their way to a championship at the Marshall tournament Sept. 23-24. They spent a couple of weeks at No. 1 in the Minnesota Volleyball Coaches Association rankings and even climbed as high as 14th in the national volleyball coaches rankings.
Northfield had never been ranked higher than second in the big-school rankings (the Raiders got there in the Covid-shortened 2020 season), but that doesn't mean coach Tim Torstenson is ready to proclaim this year's team his best ever.
As he told Jim Reece of the Faribault Daily News, he will wait to see how the team performs in the postseason before pondering that question.
With just three games left on the regular-season schedule, that postseason is almost here. And, Tuesday's game against No. 10-4A Rochester Mayo will be just a small taste of a very difficult road ahead in the Class 4A, Section 1 tournament.
Northfield is just one of a handful of teams in the section that would be considered a strong title contender in the state tournament. The Raiders would have to get past Mayo (16-3, 7-1), No. 2-4A Lakeville North, No. 6-4A Lakeville South and Rochester Century, which beat Mayo in five sets last week.
Getting through the section tournament will be tough, to say the least. And Northfield hasn't had the greatest of success in the section tournament. The Raiders, still looking for their first state tournament appearance, lost to Lakeville North in the 2017 final and lost to Lakeville South in the 2018 and 2019 semifinals. Mayo beat Northfield 3-2 in last year's semifinals.
If the Raiders, led by Sydney Jaynes' team-leading 204 kills on the season, can get past Mayo on Tuesday, they will have just Faribault (3-3) and Rochester John Marshall (1-5) left on the schedule and have a Big 9 conference championship within reach.