Kathy Gillen insists every year is different. Her players still feel the nerves and the excitement of playing in the state tournament. And she never knows what to expect.

The results, however, rarely change. No. 1 seeded Eagan defeated Forest Lake 25-13, 25-11, 17-25, 25-13 in the Class 3A quarterfinals on Thursday at Xcel Energy Center. It’s the sixth consecutive year Eagan won its first-round match.

“It’s really hard to prepare because you always have different players,” Gillen said. “It’s a different atmosphere you can’t describe. You try to give them things to focus on that are normal even though being here is far from normal.”

Senior hitters Ellie Husemann and Peyton Rude, both of whom had played on three previous state tournament teams, took it upon themselves to set the tone for the team.

“I wasn’t nervous. I was more excited,” said Husemann, a 6-3 middle hitter. “I just wanted to make sure the team and the younger girls and the new girls didn’t let their nerves get to them too much.”

Eagan came out looking every bit like the top seed, winning the first two sets comfortably. Forest Lake rallied to win the third set 25-17.

“They fought back and we didn’t expect that,” Husemannn said. “We did some things on our side of the net that hurt us and they did some good things on their side.”

Forest Lake coach Sherri Alm said, “We made some mistakes, which was kind of disappointing, because we can play. We eliminated more of our mistakes [in the third set] and that’s what we wanted to do with all of our opportunities today.”

Eagan regrouped and cruised through the fourth and deciding set.

Gillen’s secret to getting her team back on track?

“I usually just tell them I love them,” she said with a laugh.

Lakeville South had been through tough stretches before. So when first-time state entrant Edina settled in, won a set and took a lead in the next, the Cougars weren’t concerned.

After all, they still held a 2-1 lead. It was just a matter of getting back to basics.

Lakeville South rallied from a five-point deficit in the fourth set to win 25-20 and close out a 25-16, 25-22, 15-25, 25-20 victory.

“We kind of got away from doing our job,” coach Stephen Willingham said. “We talked about that during timeouts. Doing your job and then just letting instincts take over.”

The Cougars listened, battling back on the strength of their renewed focus.

“Our motto this season is grit,” senior libero Alena Moldan said. “We wrote it on our arms. It helps us pull together tighter and when we’re able to play together, we’re so much better.”

Edina coach Mark Nelson said it took his team, which had never played in the state tournament before, a little while to find its game.

“I wish we’d come out of the gate a little stronger, but in the third set, we controlled the pace to our style a little more,” he said. “But we just missed a few serves at the end and we lost our momentum.”

Perhaps the most important thing Champlin Park coach John Yunker has accomplished this season is taking the state’s deepest, most talented group of players and turning it into a high-functioning team.

The Rebels continued their dominant postseason showing with a 25-15, 25-17, 25-15 victory over Moorhead. Champlin Park has yet to lose a set since the end of the regular season. In fact, it has lost just five sets all season.

“There’s not a lot we have to worry about with jealousy or who’s going to get the ball or anything like that,” Yunker said. “We have a lot of talent and Izzy [Ashburn] finds people at the right times and everybody is excited for the person next to them.”

The Rebels professed to have a case of pre-match nerves, but it never showed. With Ashburn, a setter who was named Ms. Volleyball on Wednesday, distributing the ball among her cadre of talented hitters, Champlin Park took control quickly and never let Moorhead get momentum.

“Any time you come to state, the nerves are going to start right away,” Ashburn said. “We just handled it how we expected.”

Moorhead coach Char Lien acknowledged that her team was at a disadvantage from the outset.

“They play at a high level day-in and day-out,” she said. “They’re used to tough matches. It gives them an edge.”