RAPID CITY — Northwestern survived and advanced.

The Wildcats squeaked past Gayville-Volin’s potential upset bid, taking home a five-set win in the quarterfinals of the Class B state volleyball tournament. The set scores were 22-25, 25-12, 25-22, 18-25 and 15-10.

“Gayville-Volin is a great defensive team, we knew that coming in,” said Northwestern coach Nora Groft. “That’s their strength and we pride ourselves on being an offensive team. It was our strength against their strength. And they just kept playing balls up and playing balls up. It’s going to take 3-4-5 swings before you’re going to be able to put one down. Our kids just stuck with it.”

The Raiders (30-5) forced a winner-take-all set with a 25-18 win in set four, but Northwestern gained momentum early in the decider with a 6-2 lead. After a GV timeout, the Raiders tied things up at six before the Wildcats took a timeout of its own.

“Whoever wins the fifth set is the team that attacks and stays on the attack and plays confidently,” said Groft. “I thought Ashley Haven brought a few really good swings at the end just to seal the deal.”

Haven, a 6-foot senior middle hitter, paced much of the Northwestern offense in the final set. Tied at 8-8, the Wildcats pulled ahead, closing out the win with Ashley Haven’s 25th and final kill.

“Ashley is just our experienced kid who knows she can put a ball down,” said Groft. “She just needs the ball up in the air. I thought the two seniors did a nice job finishing in set five.”

Northwestern (36-2) took an early deficit to Gayville-Volin after falling behind 20-15 in set one. Senior setter Ella Boekelheide says the Wildcats were caught off guard by the early deficit.

“They’re really scrappy and a lot of the girls on our team, we haven’t been to state in a couple years so this whole atmosphere is so new and different,” Boekelheide said. “I think it just took a little bit of time to get adjusted to.”

But the veteran Boekelheide kept the team rolling in sets two and three, winning 25-11 and 25-22. In set four, the Raiders crawled back from a 6-1 deficit, going on a 17-7 run to take control before taking the fourth set 25-18.

“It’s now or never,” Boekelheide said of the message before set five. “We’ve been working the whole entire year for this so it’s like, we know we can do it, so just do it.”

Boekelheide, who totaled a game-high 43 assists with 20 digs, four blocks and three kills, is a main part of the Wildcats’ success, with Groft adding postgame how her positive mindset keeps the team rolling.

“Ella is such a positive kid,” Groft said. “It wouldn’t matter if we were down 24-2, she’s like ‘C’mon guys, we got this,’ she’s just super positive and the other kids feed off of that. 

Haven ended the game with 25 kills, 24 digs and eight blocks, Breelyn Satter added nine kills, six blocks and three digs, Lila Johnson recorded seven kills, 19 digs and two blocks while eighth graders Breanna Halverson (five aces) and Kylee Henjum (four kills, nine blocks) played important roles down the stretch.

“Our kids got a ton of state tournament experience tonight,” Groft said. “I thought our two eighth graders did a fantastic job. We rolled when those two were going and I just thought if we could just keep giving them more experience, all the better for tomorrow.”

GV’s Maia Achen finished with 14 kills and 23 digs, Paisley Dimmer had 13 kills and 22 digs, Jolie and Aliza Westrum each tallied eight kills with a combined 42 digs. Taylor Hoxeng had 28 digs and six assists while Kendra Beeck dished out 39 assists and 20 digs in the loss.

The Wildcats will play the No. 3 Warner vs. No. 6 Harding County winner Friday at 6:45 p.m., MT, with a chance to have a sequel with the Monarchs. Northwestern defeated Warner in four sets on Sept. 11 in Warner.

“They have a lot of good, young girls,” Boekelheide said of Warner. “They have pretty much all-around a very good team. We just have to dial in, have good serve-receive, good defense, hit our shots and it’ll be fun.”