Benilde-St. Margaret's wins chance to play Marshall for Class 3A volleyball title

Benilde-St. Margaret's made a plan and followed it. Eventually.

The Red Knights, after a slow start, defeated second-seeded Kasson-Mantorville 25-23, 25-22, 25-12 on Thursday in the semifinals of the Class 3A volleyball state tournament at Xcel Energy Center.

The Red Knights (25-7) needed a late push to win the first set. They took their first lead of the match at 22-21.

"Once we started picking up on the shots they were making, we started switching up our shots," Red Knights junior Izzy Saffert said. "We followed our game plan, which we didn't start out doing."

The KoMets (25-9) led 7-6 in the second set before faltering. They never led in the third set after the Red Knights scored six straight points to take a 12-4 lead.

"I don't think we were exhausted physically, but I think mentally we were," KoMets senior Whittney Deno said. "We were playing as six individuals on the court and not as a team. That's what it came down to."

Lily Eigner led the Red Knights with 19 kills. Sierre Lumpkin had 11 kills, Michaela Dooley had 23 digs and Ellery Clark had 35 assists.

Marshall 3, Grand Rapids 0: The top-seeded Tigers won the other semifinal 25-18, 25-18, 25-19 over the fourth-seeded Thunderhawks.

The Tigers' front-court duo of Randi Wendorff and Leah Jones was too much for the Thunderhawks. The seniors had 11 and 10 kills, respectively, and provided stern defense at the net.

"It's more difficult to get swings," Thunderhawks junior Braya LaPlant said. "Obviously it is way easier to swing when there is nothing in front of you. When you have a block as big as they have, sometimes you're not going to be able to swing at 100 miles per hour every time. You're gonna have to make more shots and be smarter."

Wendorff led the way for Marshall (32-2). She connected with setter Lauren Wherry for five straight kills in the first set to set the tone. Wherry finished with 32 assists.

"[Wendorff and Wherry] are good friends. There's a little mojo between those two," Tigers coach Dan Westby said. "I really thought those two made a good connection today. They had that secret sauce going. It certainly worked out well for us. Randi was really dialed in. Lauren did a good job of realizing that and found ways to get her the ball."