Good thing the East Ridge volleyball players have short memories.

East Ridge spotted Bloomington Jefferson a first-set lead, then simply put it behing them and settled in for a four-set 11-25, 25-17, 25-21, 28-26 victory.

“Once the second set started, we kind of reset. We forgot about the first set and play our game,” said senior hitter Camryn Greenwald. “Then, when we saw the it was working, our confidence went way up.

The first-set loss was the equivalent of splash of cold water to the Raptors’ faces, said Mikayla McDougall. “Once we were able to put or nerves aside and focus in on this just being a normal volleyball game, it just happens to be at the state tournament we wee able to really show what we can do.”

Jefferson coach Crystal Dohlman left frustrated. Expectations were high for the Jaguars this year, but injuries sapped momentum and they were rarely able to how their full strength.

“That first set, that’s our game. That’s what we’re capable of, what we came here to do,” Dohlman said. “We definitely overcame a lot of adversity in our season. I’m incredibly proud os there girls for what we did go through. It’s disappointing to know what we are capable to and to not have accomplished that right now.

Britt Carlson had 18 kills for the Raptors and Greenwald added 11.

Cassie Sieling led the Jaguars with 18 kills.

Eden Prairie had been down before – perhaps more often than head coach Chad Becker cared to admit – so losing the first two sets of the Class 4A semifinal to unseeded Forest Lake was a cause for concern, but the No. 2-seeded Eagles were never stressed.

They rallied, winning the final three sets, to take a 24-26, 24-26, 25-22, 25-18, 21-19 victory and advance to Thursday’s semifinals.

“There was some sense of urgency, but not because we were the No. 2 seed and were supposed to make it to the championship game,” said senior outside hitter Paige O’Connell. “More because we didn’t want to lose. We used that urgency to push us forward.”

Becker admitted that he would be open to the idea of his team playing with a lead more often.

“I probably should tell them that more often,” he said with a grin. “But me yelling at them freaks them out.”

He added that the Eagles come-from-behind victory shed a light on the character of his team.

“They’ve been doing this all year,” he said.”Late in games they find a way to come back. There’s no clock in volleyball. If you’re down 10, you can come back. They battle for every point. They’re very resilient.”

Kendall Minta, Eden Prairie’s 6-foot-3 middle blocker, led the Eagles with 22 kills. Lillian Ekness added 13 and O’Connell 10. Setter Cameron Berger had 51 set assists.

Forest Lake’s Bethany Weiss led all attackers with 26 kills.

Good thing the East Ridge volleyball players have short memories.

East Ridge spotted Bloomington Jefferson a first-set lead, then simply put it behing them and settled in for a four-set 11-25, 25-17, 25-21, 28-26 victory.

“Once the second set started, we kind of reset. We forgot about the first set and play our game,” said senior hitter Camryn Greenwald. “Then, when we saw the it was working, our confidence went way up.

The first-set loss was the equivalent of splash of cold water to the Raptors’ faces, said Mikayla McDougall. “Once we were able to put or nerves aside and focus in on this just being a normal volleyball game, it just happens to be at the state tournament we wee able to really show what we can do.”

Jefferson coach Crystal Dohlman left frustrated. Expectations were high for the Jaguars this year, but injuries sapped momentum and they were rarely able to how their full strength.

“That first set, that’s our game. That’s what we’re capable of, what we came here to do,” Dohlman said. “We definitely overcame a lot of adversity in our season. I’m incredibly proud os there girls for what we did go through. It’s disappointing to know what we are capable to and to not have accomplished that right now.

Britt Carlson had 18 kills for the Raptors and Greenwald added 11.

Cassie Sieling led the Jaguars with 18 kills.

It’s a weapon not often seen in high school volleyball circles but devastating when successful.

Rogers, making its first state tournament appearance, leaned heavily on the overhand top-spin jump serve that lives in the repertoire of senior outside hitter Allyson Ritter and recently-named All-State freshman hitter Anya Schmidt to pull out a four-set 21-25, 25-15, 25-19, 26-24 victory over familiar tournament entrant Lakeville North in the Class 4A quarterfinals.

Rogers’ ability to pose problem with the serve was evident in the final stats, where Schmidt was particularly effective, notching 14 aces serves.

“That’s a rare serve to see at this level,” Lakeville North coach Jackie Richter said. “It challenged our serve receive a bit.”

First-time tournament jitters plagued Rogers in the opening set, said head coach Bo Schmidt.

“They got ahead early – the serve receive wasn’t quite there – but we stuck with our plan and everything kind of came together after we got through that phase,” he said.

Schmidt and Ritter began developing their unique serve a few years ago thanks to the sharp eyes of an assistant.

“Our development coach saw something in Anya and Ally that could changing the game,” Schmidt said of the jump-serving duo.

“He said ‘We can do this. We can serve more aggressively than anybody else.’ You take your lumps doing it, but Ally’s been doing it for four years now, Anya for three. If you stick with it, you see what happens, because nobody expects it. Nobody does it.”

Schmidt’s talents weren’t limited to serving. She led the match with 24 kills and senior Brynn Reines added 18 kills, along with a team-leading 17 digs.

Reines showed up when the Royals needed some senior leadership to fall back on.

She was the central figures in a late fourth-set run that iced the Royals’ victory, contributing an unexpected dig, a clutch block and the match-clinching kill.

“This is our first time here,” Reines said. “This is a really special experience.”

Wayzata -- undefeated, ranked No. 1 in Class 4A and riding a 51-match winning streak -- took care of business as expected, beating Roseville, 25-9, 25-9, 25-14.

Senior right-side hitter Katy Riviere had 11 digs, 10 serve receives and 9 kills for Wayzata, which had a whopping .402 hitting percentage in the match. Sierra Moore matched Riviere with for the team lead in kills with nine, setter Stella Swenson recorded 37 set assists (32-0) and libero Ella Voegele had 11 digs and three service aces for the Trojans.

Roseville (20-10) had difficulty solving Wayzata’s air-tight defense and managed just 19 kills and a .021 hitting percentage. Gabrielle Kopp paced the Raiders with 7 kills.