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Class 3A: Lakeville South rallies; Champlin Park staves off upset bid; Hopkins, Eagan sweep openers

By JIM PAULSEN, Star Tribune, 11/10/16, 1:15PM CST

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The Cougars' Jenny Mosser led the comeback over Prior Lake. The Rebels needed five sets to defeat unseeded Roseville.


Lakeville South's Jasmine Mulvihill (8), left, and teammate Jenny Mosser (9) go up for a block against Prior Lake. Photos: Leila Navidi * leila.navidi@startribune.com


Rebels survive Roseville again


Champlin Park's Marisa Vattendahl Vidal (7), center, and Champlin Park's Maria Claflin (4) go up to block Roseville's Ginger Perra (3). Photo: Leila Navidi

Champlin Park (30-2) has had few close matches this year, so the Rebels had to dig into their long-term memory banks to help pull out a five-set victory over a gritty Roseville team, 25-12, 20-25, 25-19, 22-25, 15-8. 

“We haven’t had a tight match until the last few matches,” Rebels’ coach John Yunker said. “We’ve played Roseville three times at the state tournament and they’ve all gone to five sets. I told them then to file it away for the future and we pulled it out today.”

With the Raiders contesting every point, Champlin Park leaned on the one player no other team can match. The Rebels have Sydney Hilley.

Hilley, who switched from setter to outside hitter prior to this season, notched 42 kills to lift the No. 2-seeded Rebels into the Class 3A semifinals for the second consecutive year.

“She’s a great player and you know she’s going to get her kills, but you just have to say ‘Cool, on to the next one,’ ” Roseville setter Bre Maloney said.

Hilley, two-time Metro Player of the year and recent winner of the 2016 Ms. Volleyball award, said it was what it took to win the match.

“Our thing this year is going one-by-one,” Hilley said. “We left here last year thinking, we can do more. That’s taken us a long way this year.”


Hopkins wins, finally


Hopkins' Lauren Ortiz digs the ball. Photo: Leila Navidi

Hopkins coach Vicki Swenson forgot about the post-match press conference required after the Royals had dispatched of Moorhead in three sets, 25-14, 25-23, 25-20. Expectations are greater this year and Swenson had scouting to do for the Royals’ semifinals match.

“We just did something no Hopkins team has done before,” she said. “We’ve won consolation, but no Hopkins team has won its first match. It’s big deal for us.”

The Royals, who qualified but lost both tournament matches last year, played the toughest schedule in the state to steel themselves for a deeper run.  Swenson said that experience showed on and off the court.

“To win this time of year, you have to be three things: You have to be healthy, you have to be lucky and you have to be good,” she said. “And we’re healthy, I think we’re pretty good and we maybe got a little lucky.”


Eagan rolls


Eagan's Taylor Olstad digs the ball. Photo: Leila Navidi

As the defending state champion, Eagan is accustomed to being a target. Defeating the Wildcats, or even staying close, can make an opponent’s season. So coach Kathy Gillen doesn’t even address it, preferring to concentrate on how her team is playing.

“Honestly, we didn’t talk about it very much,” Gillen said. “In fact, we never talk about our win-loss record or anything like that. We just talked about the jobs we had to take care of.”

The top-seeded Wildcats took care of virtually every little job that needed tending, routing underdog Grand Rapids 25-12, 25-7, 25-9. McKenna Melville had 12 kills and Brie Orr added seven kills, 14 set assists and six digs for Eagan (29-1).

 


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