The visiting team was sent home disappointed again, but a lot quicker this time around.

BCLUW blunted Belle Plaine’s big gun in the early going and the Comets chased off the Plainsmen in a 3-0 sweep in Monday’s Region 4 quarterfinals, winning 25-12, 25-16, 25-14 in a rematch of last fall’s five-set thriller.

The Comets (25-11), who came away with last year’s 23-25, 25-22, 11-25, 32-30, 15-9 triumph in Belle Plaine, advanced back to the regional semifinals where they will meet Woodward-Granger. The Hawks (23-10) knocked off No. 15 South Hamilton, 3-1, and will square off with BCLUW at 7 p.m. Thursday in Jewell.

The path back to the semifinals had a different feel for the Comets after they blasted past Belle Plaine, capitalizing when Iowa State commit Kenzie Mantz was in the back row and standing up to her when the 6-foot-2 outside hitter got her swings at the net.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - BCLUW sophomore utility Lizzie Garber (2) reaches to tip the ball over the net during the Comets’ three-game sweep of Belle Plaine in Monday’s Class 2A Region 4 quarterfinals in Conrad.

No point stood out more than when BCLUW junior Madi Ubben stuffed Mantz’s back-row attack to give the Comets a 10-5 lead and force a Belle Plaine timeout.

The point was part of a 6-0 surge to the lead for BCLUW that turned into a 9-1 run that turned into a 17-2 swell of momentum for the home team.

“That’s the best feeling ever, just knowing you’re shutting them down and getting momentum for anything,” said Ubben. “Coming to that timeout really dampens their mood, too.”

Fifteen points into the match might seem a little early for the play of the night, but the crowd responded accordingly.

“I felt like everybody fed off that, especially that block she got in game one, and I felt like that took everybody up a notch and it really went from there,” said BCLUW head coach Kristen Garber. “I could name everybody on the court and on the bench and I felt like everybody had some role.”

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

The Comets got 10 kills apiece from Easton Swanson and Jade Hammers, while Ubben finished with four kills and a team-leading two solo blocks.

Mantz paced Belle Plaine with 10 kills, Nicholaa Phillippe had three kills and Dani Montgomery had one. That’s all the offense the Plainsmen (23-6) managed.

“[Last year’s match] was the hot topic, because obviously they wanted revenge and we wanted to keep going,” said Ubben. “We knew they were going to come out here and give it to us so we definitely planned for that.

“[Mantz] was definitely our focal point. We knew they’re going to go to her because she’s really good. We knew shutting her down the first game would get in her head and get in their heads so just getting even touches on her balls would help us out, even with our confidence too.”

BCLUW made it difficult for Belle Plaine to deliver the ball to Mantz, and she never managed to get on track. The Comets missed just one serve in the entire match, going 73-for-74 and staying aggressive as well with 11 total aces.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“She’s going to score her points when she’s in the front row, but we really have to take advantage when she’s not up there and I thought mentally tonight we were really tuned into that and knew where she was all the time,” said Garber of Mantz. “I felt like the rest of our game was really good, our serving and passing gave us a chance to do what we wanted to do.”

Most of BCLUW’s successful attacks came from the outside, as Swanson and Hammers racked up 20 of the team’s 32 kills in the match. Lizzie Garber added three kills, Kerrigan Hatch had two kills, and Bailey Ashton and Lili Wilson each had one kill.

Lizzie’s greatest impact was behind the service line, where she went 21-for-21 with four aces. She served up an 11-0 run to end the second game and was at the line for a 7-0 surge that gave the Comets the lead for good in game three.

Trailing 7-6 when Lizzie’s kill from the right side earned her the serve, the Comets rattled off another six in a row to take a 13-7 advantage. Belle Plaine interrupted the run, albeit briefly, before BCLUW scored another nine straight with Ubben serving to cap a 16-1 run for a 22-8 lead.

The Comets finished off the match thanks to a handful of Plainsmen errors.

“Serving is one of our stronger points,” said Ubben. “They struggled tonight on some receive so we knew if we kept going at them that would get in their heads for everything else.”

Swanson served 13-for-13, Parker Scurr was 10-for-10 and Ubben went 10-for-11, each recording one ace. Cate Nason was 9-for-9 and Olivia Hughes was 8-for-8, both charting two aces apiece.

Lizzie finished with 16 assists and Nason had another 10, while Swanson’s eight digs and Ubben’s seven digs led the defense.

Playing their first match in 13 days, coach Garber wasn’t sure what to expect.

“It was a relief, it seems like it was 10 years since we competed, but we really did have a great week of practice and that’s not always the case,” she said. “But this group has been really focused and they were pumped to play tonight. I was nervous what it was going to look like once we came out and got going, but I was pretty happy with what I saw.”