NEVADA — The BCLUW volleyball team exacted two years worth of revenge, and it only took four sets to do it.

The sixth-ranked Comets turned away No. 7 Ankeny Christian Academy in Wednesday’s Class 1A Region 8 final, winning 25-16, 25-23, 23-25, 25-16 to advance back to the Iowa Girls High School State Volleyball Championships for the third season in a row.

The last two trips to Coralville came to an end at the hands of these same Eagles, which only went to motivate the Comets (36-8) when the postseason brackets were released. BCLUW avenged a semifinal loss from two years ago and last year’s championship loss by beating an Ankeny Christian Academy squad that was just as good as it was young.

ACA freshman Havanna Dolbeare emerged as the Comets’ top threat throughout Wednesday’s match, but in the end it wasn’t enough to stop BCLUW from advancing back to state once again.

“It feels great knowing that they took us out of the state tournament the past two years,” said BCLUW sophomore utility Cambria Wayman. “It really feels like an accomplishment, knowing that we did. I feel like since we knew who it was we wanted it so much and we just wanted to fight.”

And fight they did. After rolling to a 25-16 victory in the opening set, BCLUW ran into a different ACA team in the second. Having already made the mistakes they seemed to be afraid of, the Eagles came out with reckless abandon and let it all hang out.

Ankeny Christian used an early 7-0 surge to take command at 12-5, but the Comets fought as though there was no tomorrow — as though they were playing the same team that knocked them out of state the last two seasons.

BCLUW came all the way back from that seven-point deficit and overtook ACA with 9-2 run to close out the 25-23 victory.

“I do think that was a little bity of a momentum swing right there, just to get that second set,” said BCLUW head coach Megan Yantis. “They had great defense and were very scrappy, so credit to our hitters to be able to mix it up.”

The third set got away from BCLUW midway through, when Ankeny Christian (28-14) used a 6-0 spurt to take a 16-13 lead. The deficit grew to seven before the Comets came back again, riding the powerful swing of junior outside hitter Olivia Peters to within 24-23.

ACA finally stemmed the Comets’ 6-0 run with a kill of its own to force a fourth set, but BCLUW wasn’t going to let the Eagles get back into the match.

“I think we took it with a grain of salt,” said Peters, who put down a match-high 20 kills for the Comets. “They had good digs and good swings, but we did too, and we took that into consideration and knew that we were the bigger team and put it down.

“We put it behind us. We can’t dread on mistakes, so we took the next set and went hammer-time.”

Peters had five kills in the final set, senior outside hitter Grace Farnsworth had four, while the Comets got two kills each from Wayman and senior Leah McEwen.

BCLUW led 9-6 when Ankeny Christian used the last of its two timeouts, and the Comets followed with an 11-2 run to grab control.

Peters eventually recorded the final point to send the Comets into yet another state-qualifying celebration.

“We put our blood, sweat and tears for this exact moment,” she said. “We’ve been together all summer, all season, all of us have just shown up and we clearly showed how much effort we put in.”

Peters picked up 15 digs and a block to go with her 20 kills, while Farnsworth finished with 18 kills, 18 digs and two blocks. Wayman added seven kills to the cause while Kylie Pekarek and Kennedy Davis added five kills apiece. McEwen ended with three kills.

Wayman totaled 32 assists and Sally Ramirez had 22 more as the Comet offense made the plays its defense gave it a chance to.

Brinna Benson led the defense with 22 digs and served 33-for-33 with two aces.

Dolbeare finished with 18 kills to power the Eagles in season-ending defeat. Sophomore Breeze Bentz added 11 kills and senior Ella Leever had seven kills.

“You always have nerves because you know Ankeny Christian’s going to come out and they’re just a good ballclub and they have a history of being a good ballclub,” Yantis said, “but I also knew that we could win and what team that we had.

“I was excited because of the revenge thing. This was our prove-it moment and we proved it.”

BCLUW will be the No. 5 seed for the state tournament and will face fifth-ranked and fourth-seeded Dunkerton in the 1A state quarterfinals on Tuesday, Nov. 4, at Xtream Arena in Coralville. The Comets and Raiders (29-11) — both of the Iowa Star Conference — met three times this season with Dunkerton taking two of them.

“It means so much to get back to state because we lost so many seniors last year,” said Wayman. “So to be able to come back and prove that we can still fight and that we’ve grown, it’s amazing.”

Iowa Girls High School State Volleyball Championships

At Xtream Arena, Coralville

Quarterfinal Pairings

CLASS 1A

Court 1

No. 1 St. Ansgar (28-4) vs. No. 8 East Mills (33-4), 6 p.m.

No. 4 Dunkerton (29-11) vs. No. 5 BCLUW (36-8), 8 p.m.

Court 2

No. 2 Janesville (31-11) vs. No. 7 Gladbrook-Reinbeck (27-13), 6:25 p.m.

No. 3 North Tama (28-13) vs. No. 6 Sidney (22-9), 8:25 p.m.