John's Journal: ‘It Really Felt Like A Dream’

What is it about playing at state? In every state tournament in every high school activity, the moment of arriving at the venue, looking around and taking it all in is a memory that can last a lifetime. And when the action takes place at Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul – one of the finest arenas in the country – well, it’s almost indescribable for the high school volleyball players who are competing at state this week.

“It's awesome. It’s so cool,” said Champlin Park senior Kathryn Adler after the Rebels defeated Anoka 3-0 in Wednesday’s Class 4A quarterfinals. “It really felt like a dream, it's just such a crazy environment that you can't replicate in any other way. So it's really a special experience.”

Rebels senior Carly Gilk walked from the locker room to the arena floor while following tradition and grasping little fingers with teammate Reese Axness.

“For me, it was kind of a surreal moment,” Gilk said. “You're walking out of the tunnel, me and Reese are holding pinkies together, and you look out and it's all your fans, all your biggest supporters, your family and friends. And I think it's super cool that we have such a good community that rallies around us.”

Top-seeded Lakeville South advanced to Thursday’s 4A semifinals with a 3-0 sweep of eighth seed Apple Valley, fifth-seeded Roseville topped fourth-seeded St. Michael-Albertville 3-1 and No. 3 seed East Ridge defeated sixth seed Minnetonka 3-0. Champlin Park is seeded second and Anoka is seventh.

This is the first MSHSL state tournament to make the change to seeding all eight state entrants, and most sports will eventually do the same. The previous system had the No. 1 through No. 5 seeds identified, with the remaining three teams being placed in state quarterfinal brackets via random draw. In both cases, the head coaches of the participating teams do the seeding electronically.

“I think it's the fairest way to do it,” said Anoka coach Chris Fenwick. “I remember my first year here, about 13 years ago, and I thought we had a pretty good squad. And we got the random draw against the first seed, and then we ended up losing two in a row, and it was just like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ And I thought we had a really good squad there. So I think it's the fairest way to do it. And wherever the chips lie, they lie.”

Roseville High School is only a nine-mile drive from Xcel Energy Center, but getting there is not easy. The Raiders are making their school’s ninth appearance at state and first since 2021. Coach Greg Ueland, who has a 17-year record of 309-178, was asked how the 2024 squad stacks up with the others he has brought to state.

“It's hard to compare them all, but this one just has something special I can't explain, just kind of that special magic,” he said. “And it's really fun to coach them. I look forward to it every day; the matches, the practices, the banter that we have with each other. We definitely have a lot of banter.

“A lot of times I'll come into the huddle and I can kind of hear them, and they've already said everything as coaches we need to say. It's very student-led, they take the lead on a lot of things. They know what they need to do and it's amazing what they say in the huddle.”

Roseville dropped the first set against St. Michael-Albertville by a score of 25-20 before winning the next three 28-26, 25-23, 25-23 in a very closely-contested match.

“Honestly, I think our team is really good when the score is close and we're going point for point, because even if we lose the point, we're still supporting each other, telling each other, ‘We're gonna get this next one, it's not over,’ ” said Raiders senior Kadence Davison. “I feel like we just have really good urgency, and we just want to finish it off.”

Roseville senior Logan Cregan reiterated that point.

“We're such a close-knit team,” she said. “We have a lot of trust in each other. So like any ball that comes over, I think we can handle it well and it put on the floor.”

“In those moments we look to each other a lot, and we have so much trust in each other,” sophomore Leah Biyadglign said. “In those big moments, they don't feel as big because we're all doing it together, and we're all pushing through it together.”

St. Michael-Albertville is playing at state for the first time since 2008, and coach Tammy Cornillez said that accomplishment “also represents all the former players, the former coaches that have sacrificed and put a lot of time and energy into our program and our players. And I have to speak to and commend my players for how coachable they are. Some of our players don't play year-round volleyball, and so we have a short amount of time to try and get them to this point. We definitely made improvements and tried to make that transformation. We're excited to represent our community.”

--MSHSL senior content creator John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Threads at johnmilleamn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]