It took visiting Benton Harbor longer to drive to Niles and return home than it did to complete Tuesday night’s Class A District Volleyball Tournament opener.

The Vikings needed only 42 minutes to advance to Thursday’s semifinal match against Portage Northern, which received an opening round bye.

Niles and Portage Northern will play the first game of a doubleheader at 6 p.m.

The Vikings rolled off 17 aces in their opening set to set the tone for the evening. When all was said and done, Niles defeated the Tigers 25-2, 25-7 and 25-17.

The Vikings were once again without coach Linda Goodrich, who has coached one match in the past three weeks due to illness.

She is currently in the hospital suffering from a kidney infection. She in all likelihood will not be coaching the Vikings against the Huskies in the semifinals.

“That is the sign of a well-coached team,” interim coach Alyse Hoyt said following the match. “I can say that because she (Goodrich) is not here tonight. It is always nice to know that when things happen that you don’t plan on, you’re prepared.”

The Vikings used just three serves to beat Benton Harbor in the opening set.

Michelle Briand got the ball rolling with six straight points to open the set, while Karissa Loveall served up seven consecutive winners to extend the Niles advantage to 14-2.

Ashley Love finished off the Tigers as she blasted nine straight service winners to end the first set.

In all, Niles had 17 aces in the opening set out of 25 points.

Things didn’t get much better for Benton Harbor in the second set.

Brea Haines helped Niles open up a 6-1 advantage with four straight points, while Love extended the lead to 12-4 with a trio of winners.

Sarah Ferguson got into the act with eight straight points to help the Vikings finish off the Tigers in the second set.

Benton Harbor came out with a little more fire in the third set, leading 2-0 right off the bat and 5-2 early in the set.

Niles, which struggled with serving to open the third set, finally was able to catch the Tigers as Briand had a trio of service winners to give the Vikings a 10-8 advantage.

Benton Harbor squared the set at 10-10, but couldn’t keep pace after that.

Three more winners from Haines made it 14-11 and two more from Rachel Zeider gave Niles a 21-16 advantage and it went on to complete the sweep.

Portage Central will take on Mattawan in a rematch of Saturday’s Big 16 Conference championship in the second semifinal on Thursday.

Class B

St. Joseph advanced to the district final with a 3-0 win over Berrien Springs. Edwardsburg defeated Lakeshore 3-1.

The championship match is scheduled for 7 p.m.