Alexandria turns back powerful Marshall, secures the Class 3A volleyball state championship

Injuries and adversity were big chapters in the 2024 volleyball season for Alexandria. Even when the season ended Saturday, the team still didn’t have its full roster healthy.

But coach Mary Byrne believed in her team from the start, whoever was on the floor.

“We had some things to overcome,” Byrne said. “But perseverance, a great group of senior leadership on this team really carried them through.”

It carried them to a state championship.

Alexandria, the No. 5 seed, pulled off its third upset of the tournament to win its first state volleyball title in 25 years. The Cardinals (24-10) knocked off three-time defending state champ and No. 2 seed Marshall 25-23, 25-22, 21-25, 25-22 to win the Class 3A title on Saturday at Xcel Energy Center.

The Cardinals had already swept top seed Delano in the semifinals. What was one more match?

“I don’t think we felt like the underdogs,” said junior Campbell Jenzen. “We knew we were the underdogs. But I think we used that as motivation to push through and really help us win this match.”

One person who didn’t put the Cardinals into that underdog category was Marshall coach Dan Westby. He said he told a couple of coaches before the tournament that they “should all be concerned with Alexandria.”

“The fact that they won the state championship isn’t a shock,” Westby said. “Certainly, we thought we had what we needed to win. But they were just too much for us.”

Westby noted how Alexandria made things difficult for his Tigers (27-7), who had to play from behind for much of the match. That wasn’t something Marshall could afford to do, Westby said.

In the first, second and fourth sets, Marshall tried to close the gap late, but Alexandria managed to close out the sets. The Cardinals ended the match on a 5-0 run, capped fittingly with a kill from junior Hadley Thull, who had a match-high 23 kills.

The loss ended Marshall’s quest for a four-peat after twice winning three in a row as a program (2011-13, 2021-23). Saturday was the only time this season that Marshall lost to a non-Class 4A opponent.

In the first set, Alexandria used a late 5-0 run to grab hold. Marshall countered with a 4-1 run of its own, but it wasn’t enough. Four of the last seven Alexandria points in the first set came on Thull kills, including set point.

Marshall rebounded in the second set and was up 15-10 thanks to three service aces during a 5-1 run. But Alexandria came out of a timeout on a 7-2 streak to tie the score at 17. Late in the second set, the Cardinals used the block from sophomores Lilly Krusemark and Sydney Kracht to win three consecutive points for a 21-19 lead. A couple more kills from Thull and another block at the net helped give Alexandria a two-sets-to-none lead over the defending champs.

Alexandria kept the early momentum in the third set, but Marshall went on a 5-2 run for a 19-18 edge. The Tigers roared back to avoid the sweep, using a 6-1 run to secure the set 25-21.

The teams traded scoring runs in the fourth set. Marshall used a 9-1 run late to take a 22-20 lead, but Alexandria won the final four points of the match.

Only twice this season had Marshall won a match while dropping a set. The Tigers defeated Watertown-Mayer 3-2 on Sept. 3 and beat Willmar 3-1 in the section final.