MINOT, N.D. -- Fargo Shanley--the reigning North Dakota Class A volleyball state champions--has earned a right to defend its title. The Deacons defeated Grand Forks Red River 25-22, 19-25, 25-14, 25-20 during the state semifinals on Friday at the Minot State Dome. Shanley (31-4) plays the winner of Bismarck Century and Fargo Davies in the championship match at 8 p.m. Saturday. Red River plays the loser of Davies and Century at 2 p.m. Saturday in the third-place match. "It's great motivation for the team," said Shanley junior middle blocker Emily Dietz, who led the Deacons with 19 kills. "We are ready." To earn their second straight title match appearance, the Deacons had to top the Roughriders a third time this season. Shanley did so by being creative on offense. The Deacons used power first and precision second. "Early on we were able to get some good swings that we placed deep for points, but as the match went along, they started to defend that better, so we started going for tips," Dietz said. Red River head coach Carolyn Olson said the match was very competitive, but pointed to some costly unforced errors that kept her team from getting momentum. "They are a good team, and every time we play them we know it is going to be a battle with both of us slugging it out," Olson said. "We didn't do a good job of limiting the unforced errors (Friday). We had three missed serves in the first set and lost by three. If we didn't have those errors, maybe it is a different match." Sophomore outside hitter Maggie Steffen led the Roughriders (23-14) with 12 kills. Junior outside hitter Kendra Bohm added eight kills and two blocks for Red River. Red River evened the match 1-1 when senior middle blocker Skyler Syrup put a kill down for set point. Shanley recovered and eventually pulled away in Set 4. "You can't really look at one thing as being the difference," Olson said. "We don't have 6-foot players up front like they do, so we needed to make adjustments. Unfortunately, we didn't come out on the winning end in this one." Junior middle blocker Kylie Kanwischer 11 kills, two blocks and three aces for the Deacons. "I thought the team that got into system the quickest was going to win the first set, and fortunately it was us," Shanley head coach Curt Johnson said. "In the three sets we won, we ran our offense very well, but we struggled at times because of what Red River was able to do offensively and defensively."