RAPID CITY – When pushed to the limit Thursday evening, Northwestern produced under pressure.

The Wildcats scored five of the last six points to collect a 22-25, 25-12, 25-22, 18-25, 15-10 win over Gayville-Volin during the opening round of the State B Volleyball Tournament at The Monument.

Seniors Ella Boekelheide and Ashley Haven had a hand in all of them, Haven racking up three kills and Boekelheide providing two big blocks as Northwestern pulled away from a 9-9 tie in the fifth.

“I thought our two seniors really stepped it up the last six points when we needed them,” said Northwestern coach Nora Groft. “Ella Boekelheide is super positive. Kept us going in the offense, but Ashley had a few statement kills there at the end.”

Haven, who has had her share of memorable kills during five years on the varsity, will probably remember a few of her latest kills that helped propel the Wildcats into the semifinal round. One of them clipped the top of the tape and trickled to the floor.

“Those are always kills, when they dribble over the net like that,” Haven said. “If we could master that, that would be amazing, but we can’t.”

The Wildcats finished the match with 50 kills and probably could have had many more if not for the phenomenal defense of Gayville-Volin, which accumulated 135 digs.

“I thought Gayville-Volin gave us everything we were expecting. … And they don’t die. They reverse swept to get here,” Groft said. “We knew they were going to keep at it. We knew we had to swing 3-4-5 times in order to put a ball down. They’re just that good defensively.”

After struggling through the opening set, the Wildcats got their teeth into the match in the second set thanks to eighth-grader Brenna Halvorson who served nine straight points.

“I just got told not to serve to the Libero and I tried my best,” Halvorson said.

Meanwhile, fellow eighth-grader Kylee Henjum was doing work at the net, contributing one solo and eight assisted blocks.

“I thought both of our eighth-graders were just unflappable tonight,” Groft said. “Kylee Henjum had so many blocks up front and good swings, and then little Brenna comes in the back row and just, nerves of steel.”

Halvorson finished with a match-leading five aces as the Raiders struggled to adjust to the lefthander’s serve.

“It’s coming from a different angle and she’s serving from the other side of the court,” Groft said. “She’s trying to hit that seam in between those defenders over in seam three, and I thought she just nailed it every time.”

Halvorson just kept cracking one serve after another.

“I felt really good,” Halvorson said, “and I just kept serving.”

Northwestern’s blocking also began to take a toll as the Wildcats made a few adjustments as the match wore on. The squad finished with 30 assisted blocks in all.

Breelyn Satter, who had one solo and seven assisted blocks, was a key factor.

“Since I’m a middle I’m usually setting the block,” Satter said. “So, once I get the hang of where they’re setting their set for the middle, it’s just clicks from there. It’s honestly easy for me.”

The Wildcats toughed out a tight third set, but fell behind in the fourth and weren’t able to recover, setting the stage for the dramatic fifth set.

Northwestern bolted out to a 6-2 advantage only to have the Raiders score four straight points to tie the score. From there, the two teams divided six points leaving the score at 9-9.

Somehow it was only fitting that on match point, Halvorson served and Haven got a kill off a feed from Boekelheide.

“We just struggled to put the ball down in the front row out of serve receive,” Haven said. “Once we got going, we’re here to play. We’re here to win, so if we want to keep playing we need to get going, we just had to flip a switch.”

Johnson said there a bit of a difference between serving in the fifth set compared to the second set.

“Yeah, because there’s way more pressure,” Halvorson said.

So how was she able to do it?

“I just kept my elbow up and did what the coaches told me to do,” Halvorson said.

As a result, the Wildcats were able to pull out the hard-fought win in their first five-set match of the year.

“It was probably our hardest match throughout these past couple of weeks. … This was our first one of the season,” Satter said, “so it was kind of different for everyone to see who was in in shape or not. … It was very hard for a couple of us, but at the end, I think we set it pretty good.”

Northwestern, 36-2 on the year, now faces longtime rival Warner in tonight’s semifinal at around 6:45 p.m. (MST). The Wildcats won a previous encounter during the regular season.

“Honestly, we really wanted to win, so I feel like if we can win tonight, we know that we can beat any other team ahead of us,” Satter said, “so if we just keep that positive mindset, we will get to that state championship match.”

Groft was pleased with her team’s performance in pulling out a challenging first-round victory.

“We’re very proud of our effort tonight,” Groft said, “and that we stuck with it.”

Serving: Gayville-Volin 1 ace (Paisley Dimmer 1); Northwestern 7 (Brenna Halvorson 5, Sophia Troske 2).

Hitting: Gayville-Volin 45 kills (Maia Achen 14, Dimmer 13, Jolie Westrum 8, Aliza Westrum 8); Northwestern 50 kills (Ashley Haven 25, Breelyn Satter 9, Lila Johnson 7.

Setting: Gayville-Volin 45 assists (Kendra Beeck 39, Taylor Hoxeng 6); Northwestern 37 (Ella Boekelheide 43).

Digs: Gayville-Volin 135 (J. Westrum 32, Hoxeng 28, Achen 23, Dimmer 22, Beeck 20); Northwestern 100 (Haven 24, Boekelheide 20, Johnson 19, Tara Blachford 10).

Blocks: Gayville-Volin 2 solo 4 assists (J. Westrum 1 solo 1 assist, Dimmer 1 solo); Northwestern 3 solo 30 assists (Haven 1 solo 7 assists, Kylee Henjum 1 solo 8 assists, Satter 1 solo 5 assists, Boekelheide 4 assists, Taylor Vetter 4 assists).

Records: Gayville-Volin 30-5; Northwestern 36-2.