Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Amelia Schwartz (10) and Reese Hoffmann (18) go up for a block on an attack from Mayer Lutheran’s Marley Martin (3) during a Section 2A Volleyball Tournament semifinal match Tuesday at St. Peter High School.

ST. PETER — The No. 4-seeded Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Knights got into their groove a little too late against top-seeded Mayer Lutheran on Tuesday as the Crusaders finished off a 25-10, 25-17, 25-21 sweep in the Section 2A Volleyball Tournament Semifinals at St. Peter High School.

The Knights came alive during a win-or-go-home third set, but the Crusaders still shut the door behind a dominating and well-balanced attack that was one kill shy of seeing three players in double figures for kills.

The Crusaders (27-5) got 11 kills from Courtney Tuttle to lead the way, while Izabelle Keaveny had 10 kills, Marley Martin had nine kills and Mari Buhr added seven kills.

Mayer Lutheran will return to St. Peter High School to play Cleveland in the section championship at 6 p.m. Thursday with a trip to state on the line.

St. Mary’s (23-6) was led by Reese Hoffmann, who had four kills and six digs, and Morgan Mathiowetz, who had three kills and 25 digs. Maria Schwartz had two kills also for the Knights, while Josie Helget had 11 set assists and 15 digs and Natalie Fischer had seven digs.

“We brought people into practice that we thought might help make [our players] better,” Knights head coach Karri Hoffmann said. “We had big blockers come in and people come in and hit hard at them so they would be ready for it. I think as the night went on, they showed that they were ready for it and their nerves kind of went away and they started playing more to the level of, ‘Hey, we have confidence and we can compete.'”

The Crusaders appeared on cruise control in the first set after opening up with a 13-1 lead. While the Knights got a 4-0 run in the middle of the set to trail 15-7 after a kill from Reese Hoffmann, an ace from Ella Pollard and back-to-back Mayer Lutheran attack errors, the Crusaders erased that run with a 5-0 run to go up 20-7. Mayer Lutheran then got a 4-0 run to end the set, finishing with a kill from Buhr.

While the Knights might have still been taken off guard by the hard-hitting, heavy-blocking Crusaders in Set 1, coach Hoffmann wasn’t wrong that her players improved and got more comfortable as the match went on.

The Knights got their largest lead of the night early in the second set, 5-2, after three consecutive Crusader errors. After the Crusaders took the lead back, 8-7, the Knights got a kill from Mathiowetz to tie it back up.

“Part of it was just playing how we wanted to play,” Knights assistant head coach George Schwint said. “We can only control what’s on our side. So, if we play strong, play hard, we’ll take our chances. They’re a good team, got good hitters, good passing, good serve, they’ve got it all.”

The close second set started to get away from the Knights, however, with an 8-1 run putting the Crusaders up 18-10. The Crusaders grew their lead to 22-12 after an ace from Martin before ending the set on a St. Mary’s service error.

St. Mary’s was a new team in the third set, however, making Mayer Lutheran work for every point. After kills from Keaveny and Tuttle made it 10-10, Maria Schwartz got a kill to put St. Mary’s back in front 11-10. The Crusaders went ahead 12-11 on a kill by Martin but then committed back-to-back attack errors to put the Knights back in front 13-12.

The Crusaders created some distance with a 20-15 lead, but a 3-0 run had the Knights right back on the heels of the Crusaders, down 20-18. After a pair of quick points by Mayer Lutheran, the Knights trailed 22-21 after a 3-0 run that ended with an ace from Helget.

“We played loose,” Schwint said of the third set. “We were just like, ‘You know what, we’re just going to go and play how we play.'”

While the Crusaders ended the set and match with a 3-0 run, it likely wasn’t what they expected to see from the third set.

“I think this group is a competitive group, they’re going to fight until the end on anything,” coach Hoffmann said of her team.

The Knights graduate five seniors from this year’s team in Maria Schwartz, Shayna Sellner, Rachel Portner, Amelia Schwartz and Caroline Currans.

“We were just saying how we felt this group was so cohesive,” coach Hoffmann said. “Friends on the court, friends off the court. They did things together and I think that was one of our biggest positives that we can walk away from is they really cared about each other doing well and they really cared about helping each other get there.

“Even from our bench players to our players on the court, they were all very cohesive and I think that’s our biggest positive to take away from this season. So, that’s where we’ll miss our seniors. We had some great senior leadership on the bench and on the court, so that’s going to be the hardest thing to replace, which hopefully these younger girls can come up and replace that leadership.”