Class 2A

Hawley 3, Southwest Christian 1: In just its second state tournament appearance in program history, Hawley has its first state title. The Nuggets toppled fourth-seeded Southwest Christian 25-22, 20-25, 26-24, 25-22 in Saturday’s final at Xcel Energy Center.

Katarina Vetter had 16 kills to lead third-seeded Hawley, while Annaka Johnson added 11 of her own.

Claire Lemkuil and Avery Beckering each had 18 kills for Southwest Christian (22-12), who got to the final by ousting top-seeded Albany on Friday.

Saturday’s title match was tightly contested. What else was new for Hawley? The third-seeded Nuggets (28-5) went five sets with St. Croix Lutheran in the quarterfinals, then again went the distance against Chatfield in the semis. In the final, the third set was tied at 24-24. At 25-24, Hawley finally put the set away with an ace from Emma Sannes to nab a 2-1 lead in the match.

Hawley’s lead in the fourth set was just 23-22 before Vetter and Johnson secured the title with consecutive kills.

Class A

Mayer Lutheran 3, Minneota 0: After consecutive runner-up finishes each of the last two seasons, Mayer Lutheran is back atop the Class A volleyball world after its 25-14, 27-25, 25-17 victory over Minneota.

It’s the Crusaders’ fourth title, all of which have come since 2016.

Mayer Lutheran (30-5) surrendered no aces while committing no serve-receive errors in a cleanly played match. Meanwhile, second-seeded Minneota (24-11) committed 35 total errors.

Jaylyn Coequyt paced the Vikings with 16 kills. Six different Crusaders players logged three-plus kills, led by 10 each from Marley Martin and Courtney Tuttle.

The lone drama came in Set 2, when top-seeded Mayer Lutheran led 23-16, but Minneota clawed back with seven-straight points to tie the set at 23-all. But, with the set tied at 25-all, Mari Buhr and Martin put away consecutive points to win the set for the Crusaders.

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