Dover-Eyota punched its ticket to the volleyball state tournament for the first time in school history on Saturday at Mayo Civic Center, defeating Caledonia 26-24, 25-22, 14-25, 25-19 in the Section 1, Class 2A championship.
For senior Lauren Peck, the victory served as the payoff for five-plus years of persistence and dedication. When she played her first varsity season as an eighth grader in 2022, the Eagles finished with a 2-21 record. The program steadily climbed out of that hole over the next few years, securing six wins in 2023, 14 in 2024, and 19 last season before falling to Caledonia in the section quarterfinals.
“It doesn’t even feel real,” Peck said after the match. “That last point, we hadn’t even scored the point yet, and I was trying to hold it together. And then we scored, and I was crying, and I’m not even an emotional person, but yeah, I was crying.”
Peck finished the match with 30 assists, 14 digs, three kills, and two aces. Sophomore Anndi Frie paced the Eagles with 15 kills, 22 digs, and two blocks, while junior Phoebe Piotrowicz added nine kills.
The section final marked the second meeting between the Three Rivers Conference opponents this season, following a four-set Dover-Eyota victory on September 3. Saturday’s rematch proved equally tense. The Eagles scraped through a tight opening set 26-24 before taking control midway through a 25-22 second-set win.
Caledonia fought back fiercely in the third, jumping out to early leads and dominating 25-14 to force a fourth set. Dover-Eyota reclaimed momentum early in the final frame, holding off a late push to seal the win.
“Team effort was fantastic,” third-year head coach Cody Janzen said. “Our blockers knew kind of where they needed to be, which helped us out a ton. That first set, second set, we got a lot of big key blocks, a lot of big key touches up there. Defensively, we were playing extremely scrappy.”
With the victory, top-seeded Dover-Eyota improves to 28-3 overall and advances to the Class 2A state quarterfinals. The match is scheduled for Thursday, November 12, at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, with exact seedings and game times pending the completion of remaining section tournaments across the state. Caledonia concludes its season with a 20-7 record, marking the second straight year the Warriors fell in the section championship match.
