ROCHESTER — The Hayfield volleyball team was ready to play from the opening serve and they kept that focus throughout the day as they swept Blooming Prairie by scores of 25-20, 25-16, 25-18 in the Section 1A West semifinals in Mayo Civic Center Saturday.

The Vikings (18-10 overall) finished the first game on a 13-8 run and they opened the second game with a 7-2 lead as they jumped to a strong start.

“I was expecting a closer match and I was expecting more out of them,” Hayfield freshman Maggie Streightiff, who had 11 kills and 19 set assists, said. “I thought we played well together and we covered really well tonight.”

The Awesome Blossoms (17-13 overall) struggled with setting up their offense in the loss as no player had more than six kills. The Vikings used an aggressive serving approach to keep BP’s all-time kill leader Taylor Hagen at bay.

“We served effectively against them and they never got a chance to run their three hitters,” Hayfield head coach Jeremy Struck said. “We put them out of system as much as possible and that’s always the key to winning.”

BP head coach Gina McLaughlin was quick to credit the Vikings for playing well, but she also said there were some things her team could’ve done better.

“Hayfield had more fire and they hit more often then we did,” BP head coach Gina McLaughlin said. “We put the ball on target at times, but then we couldn’t finish and we weren’t passing very well. We never had the whole game all together, but Hayfield avoided our blockers and I think [Struck] had a nice game plan.”

McLauhlin announced her resignation as head coach after the match and she’ll look back fondly on this year’s BP squad. The Blossoms will graduate Hagen, Madison Worke, who is BP’s all-time set leader, Nicole Inwards, who is BP’s all-time dig leader, Molly Walsh and Macaela Jensen.

“I will always have a soft spot for this team,” McLaughlin said. “We have five seniors, they all had different jobs and they all handled them with class. Every day was a good day with this team and we didn’t have any drama.”

With the win, the Vikings will now play No. 1 ranked Faribault Bethlehem Academy (24-4 overall) Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The Vikings never played FBA in the regular season, and Struck is looking forward to the matchup.

“I wanted to get a crack at them,” he said. “I saw them against Stewartville and they just fundamentally destroyed Stewartville. They didn’t do anything special, it was just a matter of them giving [the opponent] an opportunity to make a mistake.”

Hayfield stats: Maggie Streightiff, 11 kills, 19 set assists, 9  digs, 1 block, 2 aces; Jo Bungum 9, kills, 9 digs, 1 block, 1 ace; Katelyn Bjornson, 7 kills, 3 blocks; Savanna Cordle, 6 kills, 2 blocks, Carrie Rutledge, 4 kills, 11 digs, 1 block, 1 ace

BP stats: Taylor Hagen, 6 kills, 4 blocks, 4 digs; Madison Worke, 5 kills, 10 set assists, 7 digs, 1 block, 1 ace serve; Alyssa Krohnberg, 4 kills, 2 digs, 1 ace serve; Abby Wayne, 9 set assists, 3 digs; Nicole Inwards, 17 digs; Lauren Larkoski, 7 digs.