The Spartans set the tone early, and weathered a couple shaky spells on the court to finish a 3-0 sweep of Panorama on Wednesday at Grundy Center High School.

Grundy Center, ranked 10th in Class 2A, won 25-7, 25-15, 25-15 and will advance to next Monday’s regional semifinal back in Grundy Center against Emmetsburg.

“We all just wanted to go all out here,” Grundy Center senior Paige Venenga said. “We came in with a really good mindset to do our job and get business finished.”

The senior duo of Venenga and Kayden Muller accounted for six kills each. Underclassmen led the attack, however — 6-foot-7 sophomore Ryanne Brubaker led the Spartans with 12 kills and freshman Jenna Blythe had eight kills.

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - Grundy Center sophomore Ryanne Brubaker (7) hits over the block of Panorama’s Gracie Recker (14) and Bridgette Ewing (1) during Wednesday’s regional volleyball match in Grundy Center.

“We’re just a more balanced team than we were at the beginning of the season,” Grundy Center head coach Lori Willis said. “We were very middle heavy at the start, and now being balanced just makes it harder for the teams receiving the ball. And our defense has really taken a step up.”

The Spartans (24-15) went on a 12-0 run in the first set with four kills and two block assists from Brubaker; a pair of Lauren Zajac aces put Grundy ahead early.

“Everything was going really well,” Willis said. “We were passing, making good choices, and our girls let the game come to them, and that’s exactly what we wanted.”

Falling behind 16-8 in set two, Panorama (11-12) was able to hang around thanks to hitting and attack errors from the Spartans.

“We have a tendency where if we have one error, it can turn into two and then four or five, and that’s what we saw in set two,” Willis said.

Muller righted the ship with three kills in a 6-1 scoring run to help the Spartans seize the commanding 2-0 lead in the match.

“We just needed to bring our communication up,” Venenga said. “We can all do that on and of the court, and doing that really helped us bring down our errors and helped us come back.”

The Panthers were within 17-14 in the third set but another late run, this one an 8-1 spurt, guided the Spartans to the sweep.

Brubaker said her blocking and footwork has improved the most since the start of her sophomore season.

“There’d be times last year when I would just watch the ball go over my head,” Brubaker said. “The seniors have really been helping me with that, as well as Lori and Coach Landry [Luhring].”

That creates an imposing threat in the middle of Grundy’s defense at the net, with Brubaker several times on Wednesday able to create a counterattack not many 2A teams in Iowa can replicate.

Being eight inches taller than all of her teammates comes with its own pitfalls, especially in the mental game, another area where Brubaker feels she’s improved.

“There’s a lot of people looking,” Brubaker said. “Positive self-talk just really helps with that. … And I really like our team bonding, especially on game days. The seniors have really brought a lot of positive encouragement.”

Whether it’s Brubaker, Blythe or freshman Trinity Jirovsky who had three kills on Wednesday, this group of seniors has been in their shoes before as young contributing Spartans and can see the growth in filling a lot of holes vacated from last year’s senior class that led the team to the state semifinals.

“They’re more confident in their swings, they’re a lot better as defenders,” Venenga said. “We’ve got really good team chemistry, and just working hard in practice to get better each day is something that’s going to keep pushing us forward.”

Emmetsburg has four attackers with 1.8 or more kills per set. The E-Hawks swept Alta-Aurelia on Wednesday.

“We just have to cut down on some of those errors,” Willis said, “and then trust in our ability and our schedule, we play a really tough schedule that makes us battle-tested and ready to go.”