Three matches, three sweeps, including wins over defending Class AAAA Runner-up Prior Lake and defending Class A Champion Mayer Lutheran – two teams who defeated Chaska last year.
The Chaska Hawks girls volleyball team has opened the 2026 season 3-0, off to one of their best starts in years. Each match has ended in a 3-0 sweep.
After a season-opening win at Shakopee, Chaska swept both Prior Lake, the defending Class AAAA runner-up, and Mayer Lutheran, the defending Class A state champion. The Hawks always play one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the state, and this year is no different, but they have responded with three dominant performances.
The well-rounded Hawks are getting contributions across the board from each of their regulars – with different players seemingly stepping up each set.
“All the players are dialed in together, and know what it will take this season to be successful,” said head coach Sue Murphy.
Ten deep, and locked in
What stood out through three matches is how many different Hawks have had a hand in the victories. Senior captain Clara Crist, one of the top liberos in the state, has been flawless out of the back row, with steady defense and passing that has ignited the Hawks attack. Junior Finley Mathiasen has been the constant, playing every rotation in both the front and back row, and is one of the team’s leaders in both digs and kills. Senior captain Mollie Budde opened her final season at middle blocker with a monster stretch of play and junior Jaylyn Boyle has been all over the floor defensively, thwarting multiple scoring opportunities by the opposition.
Up front, junior Natalie Heyer, freshman Quinn Schneider, senior Evie Lundeen and sophomore Britta Petersen have all cashed in on their chances, with Lundeen and Petersen in particular showing marked improvement from a year ago. Sophomore Brooke Bachmann has run the offense with steady poise at setter, and no one has taken a bigger step than senior Emmy Erickson, seeing significant varsity minutes for the first time as a senior and making the most of them, both attacking the defense herself and serving with confidence. Senior Ali Leonard and junior Blair Breyer add depth to the Hawks’ squad in the back row.
Hawks soar past Shakopee in the opener
The season opener did not start the way the Hawks drew it up. Shakopee jumped to a 4-0 lead in set one, but Chaska answered with a run that flipped the score to 10-9 and never trailed again. Budde fueled the surge with a dominant service run, and though Shakopee hung in, Chaska closed out the set 25-23.
That close call seemed to take the fight out of the Sabres. Chaska ran away with set two, 25-11, before Shakopee made one last push in the third, leading for a stretch before the Hawks steadied and finished with 25-22 for the sweep.
Chaska pulls away from Prior Lake
If the Shakopee match opened with nerves, the trip to Prior Lake opened with control. Chaska’s front row set the tone in the first set, mixing power kills with precisely placed finesse shots the Lakers had no answer for. Budde, Heyer, Petersen and Schneider hammered away up front, while Mathiasen chipped in kills from both the front and back row. Several points came directly off blocks, and Crist was locked in from the service line all set – a dominant 25-10 win for the Hawks.
The second set turned into the match’s signature moment. Chaska trailed for most of the set before the two teams knotted it at 22. That’s when Erickson took over, following two service points with the set-winning blow herself, a setter dump that froze the Prior Lake defense and found an open patch of hardwood on the Lakers’ side.
Set three followed a similar script. Chaska built a lead as large as seven points behind Mathiasen’s all-around play, and though Prior Lake clawed back into range, the Hawks closed it out 25-22. The finishing touch belonged to Erickson again, another setter dump sealing the sweep.
“Prior Lake has always been a solid program,” said Murphy. “With our team schedule the way it lays out, it provides us with a challenge to practice and compete to our best day in and day out.”
Hawks defeat Mayer Lutheran after a heart-stopping first set
Nothing about the Mayer Lutheran match came easy, and the opening set was one of the more exhilarating battles in recent memory. The Crusaders, playing like the traditional Class A power they are, jumped ahead early and made the Hawks work for every point that followed.
Chaska eventually took control and appeared poised for a relatively comfortable first set win, but the Crusaders had other ideas. They chipped away to keep the set close. The Hawks served for the match four separate times in the first set. Four times, Mayer Lutheran denied them. The Crusaders then got two match-point serves of their own and Chaska turned them away as well.
Tied 30-30, the Hawks finally won back-to-back service points to escape with a 32-30 win, the longest set of their young season. Budde and Crist anchored the fight from start to finish, while Bachmann and Boyle each strung together hot serving stretches at key moments.
Set two offered a breather, relatively speaking. Petersen took over at the net, at one stretch delivering kills on four consecutive Chaska points, and the Hawks pulled away early. Lundeen also contributed to a dominant 25-15 win, which was capped off by another beautiful setter dump by Erickson.
Mayer Lutheran had one more run left in it, jumping ahead early in the third set. True to form for a team that has made a habit of answering adversity this season, Chaska battled back, seized the lead, and held on for a 25-21 finish on excellent front-row play by Heyer and hot serving by Bachmann. The result: a third consecutive sweep and a second win in a row over a state powerhouse that defeated the Hawks last year.
Chaska will look to keep the momentum going on Thursday, Sept. 10, when the Hawks travel to New Prague.
