Fosston middle hitter Brianna Vig (5) went up against Minneota's Abby Rost (6) and Natalee Rolbiecki (8) in the first set. Photo: Shari L. Gross • shari.gross@startribune.com
Fosston poked the giant, taking the first set from defending champion and top-seeded Minneota in the Class 1A semifinals.
Sufficiently irritated, the Vikings put their quick, side-to-side offense to work and won the next three sets with relative ease en route to a 23-25, 25-14, 25-7, 25-10 victory on Friday at Xcel Energy Center.
“Fosston came ready to go. They were digging everything, so scrappy, keeping balls alive,” Minneota coach Hayley Fruin said. “Our serve receive isn’t our strong suit. Our setters ran a few miles in that first set. We just didn’t come out fired up and ready to go.”
Photo gallery: Class 1A semifinals
The Vikings collected themselves and looked more like the team they had shown for much of the season in the ensuing sets. With setter McKenna Yost setting to her collection of hitters at both pins, the Vikings offense outpaced the Fosston block, forcing the Greyhounds to chase and get tired.
“We usually use two or three hitters and it really works well for us because when we do that, we’re unstoppable,” Yost said. “We like to run quicker sets because its way harder for the blocks to get from pin to pin. And we spread the ball around a lot because it makes the middles tired. That works really well for us.”
First report
Defending Class 1A champion Minneota dropped the first set, then rallied to win the final three and defeat Fosston 23-25, 25-14, 25-7, 25-10
Natalie Rolbiecki had 17 kills for the Vikings and Abby and Morgan Hennen added 13 apiece.
Emma Drellack paced Fosston with 14 kills. The Greyhounds were held to a .099 attack percentage by Minneota.
Check back later for more on the match.
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