Southwest's Anikka Nelms looks to attack the ball during the Roughriders' win over Diller-Odell at the Class D1 State Championships on Thursday at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln.
Jake Dreilinger
LINCOLN -- The Southwest volleyball team was determined to not only get out of the first round of the Class D1 State Championships, but also avoid reaching the fifth set.
In each of the last two seasons, the Roughriders had exited the tournament after failing to get the job done in the fifth set in round 1.
Not this time. No. 1 Southwest swept No. 8 Diller-Odell 25-14, 25-21, 25-23 on Thursday to reach the Class D1 semifinals.
"It was definitely talked about," Southwest coach Kim Barnett said. "We're not going five sets today. We're getting it done in three. We want to move on, and we want to stay until Saturday. That was a lot of the talk throughout the game today."
Kyra Nelms and Anikka Nelms each had 12 kills, while Atleigh Nelms had nine. Aspen Billeter led the team with three aces, and Atleigh Nelms had two.
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Southwest went from trailing 5-4 in the first set to leading 8-5 by scoring four straight points, two of which came from blocks. The Roughriders held that three-point lead until a Payton Truksa kill followed by a Billeter ace put Southwest ahead 16-11.
Both teams traded points until Southwest led 19-14. The Roughriders followed with a 6-0 to close out the set 25-14 with two kills from Anikka Nelms and a kill from Atleigh Nelms.
Southwest couldn't shake Diller-Odell in the second set. Every run Southwest went on was met by a Diller-Odell one to keep the Roughrider lead at one or two.
This trend stayed put until Southwest led 16-15. The Roughriders scored the next three points with kills from Anikka Nelms and Kyra Nelms to go up 19-15.
Southwest grew that lead to 24-17 on a 5-2 run in which Anikka Nelms and Atleigh Nelms had two kills each, but Diller-Odell made one last push by scoring the next four points. A block gave Southwest the 25-21 set win.
Diller-Odell then took control early in the third set, jumping out to a 10-6 lead. Southwest followed by scoring the next three points due to a service error and two attacking errors to cut the deficit to one. After trading some points, the Roughriders took the lead at 16-12 as part of a five-point run. Kyra Nelms had a kill and an ace in that span.
Southwest then played with the lead the latter half of the set, but Diller-Odell later cut the deficit to one at 21-20. Both teams traded points the rest of the set until Southwest won 25-23.
"I thought offensively, we did pretty well when we got the passes where they needed to be," Barnett said. "The girls knew there were some open areas that we can go to, but it was maybe a softer or shorter touch. Toward the end, I was like, 'We got to swing and put the ball away.' I think the girls did a good job swinging."
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