2024 Volleyball State Tournament: Class AAA Championship Recap

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.