Blaine, the No. 2 seed, and No. 3-seeded Eden Prairie, the defending Class 3A champions, performed as expected, each winning their quarterfinals match in straight sets.
Three Blaine players — Lydia Dimke, Jessica Jorgensen and Taylor Morgan — had 10 kills each as the Bengals (30-1) downed Bemidji 26-24, 25-11, 25-19. It was a much better outcome than in 2011, when then top-seeded Blaine was upset in the quarterfinals.
“We try not to talk about what happened before. That’s over and done and we’re a different team,” Blaine coach Celeste Gorman said. “We talked about just focusing on the next ball and not where we’re at and I think we did that.”
JIM PAULSEN