Fifth-ranked East Ridge knocked the Park Wolfpack out of the volleyball Section 3AAAA playoffs Thursday with a hard-fought threegame win. The top-seeded and host Raptors won 25-17, 25-22 and 25-10 to advance to the Section 3AAAA finals. East Ridge (22-7) will host third-seeded Rosemount (18-11) for the section title and state tournament berth Thursday. The Irish rallied from an 0-2 start to upset No. 8 Eagan in five games in the other section semifinal.

Park ended its season with a 15-12 record. It’s been a solid two-year run for this year’s seniors, who went a combined 31-23 the last two seasons after a 2-11 campaign in 2020. Park will miss the services of seven seniors next fall, several of which have been multi-year starters, including Juliana Field, Camden Kemmermueller, Addy Glide, Kendall Lewis, Megan Husaby, Skyler Crocker, Ella Hoge and Chaby Gonzalez. Leading the returners should be sophomore hitters Carly Slusser, Sonja Lind and seventh grader Mesa Jameson.

In a back-and-forth quarterfinal match Tuesday with numerous swings of momentum — Park had the juice when it counted in a five-game triumph over the host Eastview Lightning. Fifth-seeded Park won 1725, 25-15, 25-19, 23-25 and 15-10 in Section 3AAAA play Tuesday.

“I thought hitting shots and hitting aggressive spots were really good and we were really scrappy, like defense was all over the court and we were getting every ball up that we could,” said senior hitter Kendall Lewis.

“We moved the ball around,” said Park head coach Amy Johnson. “Obviously, we have our go-to hitters like Carly and Sonja, two very much of our go-to hitters, but we mixed it up. We started using our back row attack more, which is something that we’ve been trying to get going the last couple of weeks here. Eastview didn’t know who to block sometimes in that front row – whether to go to the middle or wait and go with our back row. So, offensively, we were just very strong. Our defense worked together. If there was a ball that wasn’t quite up where we wanted it, we had people going after it. We were scrappy. We didn’t let balls hit the floor very often without people going after it.”

Park senior setter Addy Glide agreed.

“I think working together really helped us, keeping our serves in, keeping all the balls in and not letting anything drop to the floor, said Glide “I really think that what helped us was our defense and our offense really connected together at the end, and we came out strong and we defeated, and we played really well as a team overall,” said Park senior Megan Husaby.

“I think this is definitely one of our better ones (wins),” said Camden Kemmetmueller. “In the beginning of the season we – some games didn’t go our way and how we thought and wanted them to. But we did a really good job throughout the season of improving the way we worked together and just trusting each other and what we do in our positions.”

The Wolfpack improved to 15-11, while fourth-seeded Eastview ended its season at 12-16.

In other quarterfinal games, East Ridge brushed aside Hastings 25-6, 256, 25-9; Rosemount swept Woodbury and eight-ranked Eagan knocked out Apple Valley in three.

Park’s Camden Kemmetmueller and Sonja Lind go up to block an Eastview shot in game one.Photo by John Molene

Park players celebrate a hard-fought five-game win over host Eastview in Apple Valley. Photo by John Molene

Sonja Lind of the Wolfpack tips a shot at the Eastview defense in game four. Photo by John Molene