One team came into St. Michael-Albertville High School’s gym with a ranking next to its name on Thursday night, and it wasn’t the host.
St. Michael-Albertville protected its home gym on Thursday night, defeating Moorhead in three straight sets, 25-17, 25-20 and 25-21.
The Knights (8-4) set the tone early, jumping out to an 18-11 lead before the Spuds, ranked No. 8 in the Class 3A state coaches’ poll, took their first timeout. STMA cruised to a 25-17 win in the first set, with big plays from Sophie Fritz, Mikala Henderson and Liv Carel.
The second set started similarly, as the Knights had an 18-12 lead that forced Moorhead to take a timeout. Then the Spuds went on a 3-0 scoring run, but the Knights were able to put the set away 25-20, with big-time kills from Henderson and Carel.
Moorhead brought its toughest competition to the third set jumping out to a 21-17 lead before STMA responded with an 8-0 scoring run to win their third straight, and the match.
Fritz led the match with 25 assists. Carel and Henderson were the beneficiaries of her service, as they each finished with 11 kills.
Alexa Gronwold was a big playmaker for the Spuds (4-2) with a team-high seven assists, while Sam Zimmerman led the way with six kills.
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