BAXTER — North Tama knocked off BCLUW in the rubber match, winning a three-set thriller in the finals of the Iowa Star Conference Volleyball Tournament on Saturday at Baxter High School.

The Class 1A No. 7 Redhawks emerged atop the talented championship bracket, beating No. 6 Janesville in the semifinals before ousting No. 5 BCLUW in the title bout, 21-14, 19-21, 15-13.

The Redhawks improved to 22-15 overall by sweeping Tripoli (21-13, 21-14) and Janesville (21-19, 21-18) before beating BCLUW for the second time in three meetings this season. The Comets (28-10) won in three straight sets in the conference clash to claim the regular-season title.

For the day, North Tama was led by Kruiz Ewoldt with 26 kills. Lily Sell added 16 kills and Briar Blake chipped in 14 kills for the offense. Zoey Rausch handed out 35 assists and Cayleigh Heller had 24 more.

Defensively, Addison Hochstetler led the Redhawks with 33 digs, while Rausch finished with 15 digs. Hochstetler also served 29-for-31 with five aces, while Rausch was 24-for-24 with two aces. Heller went 19-for-21 with three aces, while Kylie Calderwood was 18-for-19 with two aces. Haydn Wilsom was 17-for-19 with one ace.

North Tama notched nine service aces in the three-set win over BCLUW.

No. 5 BCLUW opened the day with a 2-1 win over Dunkerton (20-22, 21-14, 15-12) and a sweep of No. 8 Don Bosco (21-11, 21-16) before falling to North Tama in the title bout.

The Comets were led by Grace Farnsworth on the day with 29 kills. Olivia Peters totaled 18 kills, Cassie Nelson had 13 kills and Virginia Kaisand added 12 kills. Nason distributed 64 assists in the tournament.

Virginia and Goldie Kaisand led the BCLUW defense with seven and five blocks, respectively, and Savannah Moeller added three more. Klayre Gallentine had a team-leading 22 digs, with Peters and Farnsworth contributing 21 apiece.

Nason was the team’s top server as well, going 35-for-35 with two aces. Virginia Kaisand was 24-for-24, while Raegan Crawford was 20-for-24 with four aces.

GMG (18-10) opened with consecutive losses to Don Bosco (21-10, 21-15) and Dunkerton (21-11, 16-21, 15-6) before beating Baxter (21-8, 21-10) in the match for seventh place.

The Wolverines were led on the day by Olivia Maddux, who amassed 16 kills to go along with three blocks and 11-for-11 serving. Rhianna Murty had five kills and four blocks, while Landry August had five kills, a team-leading 12 digs, and served 17-for-17 with one ace.

Setter Hadlee Hempy totaled 33 assist and five digs while serving 28-for-31 with three aces. Makayla Pendleton chipped in with four kills and four blocks. Anna Mussig had four kills and a team-high five blocks, while Ava Maddux racked up eight digs and 9-for-11 serving with two aces. Aubree Runner added seven digs and 20-for-22 serving.