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2024 Volleyball State Tournament: Class AAA Championship Recap

Posted: Saturday, November 9, 2024 - 10:16 PM


2024 Girls Volleyball News Image

Alexandria Area made sure a signature victory didn’t go to waste. 

In the semifinals of the Minnesota State High School League’s Girls Volleyball State Tournament, the No. 5-seeded Cardinals pulled off the upset of the event by defeating Delano, the top seed in Class AAA that hadn’t suffered a loss all season. While certainly a landmark win, Alexandria Area wanted to ensure that wasn’t the crescendo to its season. 

Nope, that would come 36 hours later. 

Junior hitter Hadley Thull took a pass from senior Julia Doherty and delivered a powerful kill that put the finishing touches on a postseason run of equal parts dominance and magic in Alexandria Area’s 25-23, 25-22, 21-25, 25-22 victory over No. 2 Marshall in the Class AAA championship match on Saturday, Nov. 9 at Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul. 

Thull, who has committed to play basketball at South Dakota State, finished with 23 kills and 16 digs in giving the Cardinals (23-10) their first volleyball state championship since 1999 when they captured the Class AAA title in the three-class system. Another title came in 1995 as the Class AA champion. 

To achieve this one, the Cardinals had to defeat Marshall, perennial state power. Marshall (28-7) was the three-time defending Class AAA champion in this four-class era. 

After dropping the first two sets, the Tigers avoided the sweep with a victory in the third set. Marshall appeared poised to force a decisive fifth set, but Alexandria snapped a 22-all deadlock by ending the season with three consecutive points. 

Junior hitter Reese Drake led the Tigers with 20 kills. 

Third place

Top-seeded Delano, which entered the state tournament undefeated, rebounded from its only loss of the season to post a 25-13, 25-15, 25-20 victory over No. 3 Stewartville in the third-place match. Junior Sydney Pink powered the Tigers (32-1) with 13 kills and junior Cassie Wegman chipped in 11. Junior Kaelyn Wittwer had 21 digs. Stewartville, the Class AA champion in 2019, finished the season 27-6.

Consolation 

Mahtomedi (27-5) bounced back from a loss in the quarterfinals to win two in a row to end the season, the final match at 25-19, 23-25, 22-25, 25-17, 15-11 victory over Monticello in the consolation final. Senior middle blocker Silvia Gretzer and junior outside hitter Louisa Tarnowski led the Zephyrs with 16 kills each. Monticello (19-15), which led the match after three sets, had 24 kills from junior outside hitter Alayna Opatz. 

VB 2024 Class AAA champ

Meet Alexandria Area, the Girls Volleyball Class AAA State Champion for 2024.


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