The BCLUW volleyball team endured the valleys and the peaks that come with postseason play, and the Comets persisted through them all with Monday’s three-game sweep of Collins-Maxwell in the opening round of Class 1A Region 4 action.

Lizzie Garber came through with 14 kills and Eden Wilson had 13 more as the Comets collected a 25-17, 25-8, 25-22 triumph to advance to Wednesday’s second round and their final home match of the fall.

“It’s nice to be able to play on our home court another time, especially for the seniors,” said Garber, one of three seniors on the squad. “We have a rowdy student section, they keep us going when we get down. They don’t really let us get too quiet in here, they keep things pretty lively.”

The BCLUW faithful provided that boost as their Comets (19-15) struggled to put the Spartans (8-14) away. After breezing through the first two sets, BCLUW hit a speed bump and couldn’t get over it in Game 3. Collins-Maxwell came to life and made it a lot harder for the hosts to get what they wanted, digging up a number of attacks and sending the ball back with a purpose.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Kenna Paxson (7) sends an attack over the outstretched block of Collins-Maxwell’s Reagan Franzen (8) during Monday’s Class 1A regional volleyball match in Conrad.

But in the end, the host Comets prevailed behind their leading attackers and a strong service game that kept the Spartans on their heels. Wilson had eight kills and one ace in the third set alone, while Garber tallied five kills to help BCLUW blast into the next round. The Comets host Lynnville-Sully (12-7) at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the regional quarterfinals in Conrad.

“I thought Lizzie gave us a great spark, I thought she was good at the net, and Eden continues to be our go-to when we need a big swing,” said BCLUW head coach Kristen Garber. “It’s really nice to have her in the front row. And I thought Emma [Averill] was big for us in the back row and just serving too.

“It’s a hard game to get a rhythm going, so it was hard to get the tempo we wanted but we handled it and got out in three.”

The most important part of that late-game push, coach Garber said, was staying aggressive.

“We’ve been talking about that, and as we start to face tougher teams we can’t be giving free balls or easy pushes because that’s not going to end well for us,” she said, “so we know we have to fight for that swing.”

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

BCLUW bounced out to a 7-4 lead in the third set, having already claimed a 2-0 advantage in the match, before Collins-Maxwell made its move. The Spartans rattled off a run of nine-straight points to capture a 12-9 edge, and they didn’t relinquish the lead until Lizzie put down an overpass at the net for a 21-20 Comet advantage.

The Spartans didn’t surrender, though, and regained a 22-21 margin before BCLUW bounced back with the final four points of the set and the match. Katie Hill charted one of her three kills, Wilson walloped another, and back-to-back errors by Collins-Maxwell’s serve-receive with Comet freshman Sydney Anderson at the line closed out the contest.

“I thought our serving was really good in that (third) set so that held us together,” Lizzie said. “And Emma Averill our Libero does a really good job of constantly talking. She’s just steady in the back row and keeps everyone together.

“We’ve really been focusing on staying aggressive because we know if we tip we’re not going to score so we’re just trying to stay aggressive the whole time and that usually will get us back on track.”

BCLUW’s serving helped it stay on the rails, as the team went a collected 71-for-73 with 15 aces. Wilson was 21-for-21 with two aces, Anderson was 12-for-12 with three aces, Allison Engle was 11-for-12 with three aces, and Averill was 11-for-12 with four aces. Garber got two aces out of her 8-for-8 effort, Anistyn Borsch-Rash was 5-for-5 with one ace, and senior Abby Busch served 3-for-3 in the first set in getting her only start of the season.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“I wanted to give a couple seniors a start so we didn’t start in our normal rotations, but honestly I thought we handled that pretty well and got out of that and then we got it rolling after that,” coach Garber said. “This is a tough time of year because I do want to give a couple of those girls a start, but yet we need to play ball. I knew we could handle that and get through it and I thought we did that.”

Engle finished with 19 assists to Garber’s 14, while Engle contributed five kills to the cause. Kenna Paxson and Hill both had three kills and Borsch-Rash added another. Averill led the defense with 10 digs and Anderson had seven more. Garber and Borsch-Rash combined for the team’s only block.

“I think we all stayed pretty calm in the third (set) because we knew what happened the first two sets, we knew what we were capable of,” Lizzie said. “I think we do start to get a little timid when we get to crunch time but we just have to try to remember to keep staying aggressive.”

Elise Robertson led Collins-Maxwell with six kills and two aces, while Brooke Christie and Reagan Franzen had four kills apiece. Franzen added two blocks.