The 19-25, 25-12, 11-25, 25-17, 15-13 victory sent the Royals back to the state tournament for a second consecutive season. Rogers will attempt to improve on last season’s fourth-place finish.

“We set three goals at the start of the season,” Rogers coach Bo Schmidt said. “We wanted to win (the Northwest Suburban) Conference, win the section and get to state and the last one was to win state. We’ve got a chance to do that now.”

In 2021, Rogers upset top-seeded St. Michael-Albertville to advance to the state tournament for the first time in school history. The Knights played like a team desperate to keep the Royals from repeating that history, and they nearly did.

Neither team led by more than two points in the deciding final set, during which several points went to the officials for discussion. Sophomore Anya Schmidt set up teammate Hannah Bruskiewicz, the only two players back from the core group that played in this game last season, for the deciding kill shot.

“St. Michael was not letting up. They were not just going to let us have an easy win,” said Schmidt, whose serve is the Royals’ most potent weapon. “Kudos to St. Michael. They played very hard. They made it really difficult.”

Rogers’ game starts with and grows around the serve. The Royals have a number of players capable of putting up quick points with an ace or a non-returnable serve. And Schmidt is the leader of the group.

If she stays healthy, Schmidt is likely to become the state’s career leader in aces sometime in her junior season and last year recorded 197 aces, smashing the state single-season record. She already has more than 400 career aces; the official state record is 552 by Courtney Bitter of Baudette-Lake of the Woods (2002-07) while Hopkins’ Sam Seliger ended her high school career in 2014 with 601 aces. 

Schmidt came into Thursday’s game with 138 aces this season, but had an inconsistent performance in the section final. It showed in the individual game scores, especially in the third set when the Knights easily dispatched Rogers 25-11.

Senior Emma Ellingson gave the Royals a big boost by serving eight consecutive points to give Rogers a 10-1 lead and a head start to a 25-12 victory in the second set.

“That’s just the way this team has worked,” Bo Schmidt said. “Different people pop in and get the job done.”

By the time the game got to the fifth set, it had turned into a fist fight. Neither team gave anything away and either team could have come out on top.

Bo Schmidt said it was his team’s next-best weapon — call it heart, desire, desperation, want or will — that saved the day.

“That was just kids playing their hearts out, playing hard and not letting the ball hit the floor,” the Rogers coach said.