The West Central Trojan volleyball team earned a spot in the SoDak 16 with a come-from-behind, five-set match win over the Baltic Bulldogs in Baltic on Thursday, November 6th. The Trojans won the match by set scores of 22-25, 14-25, 25-17, 25-12, and 15-10.
West Central started the opening set with an early 3-1 lead, but Baltic quickly erased that with a 6-2 run to take a 7-5 advantage. The Bulldogs were able to stay in front the rest of the first set. They led by three points through the middle portions at scores of 10-7, 15-12, and 18-15. Baltic extended the lead to 20-15, but West Central battled to within one, 23-22. The Bulldogs would take the first set by scoring the final two points.
Baltic used that momentum in the second set. They took a quick 5-1 lead to start and never looked back. The Bulldogs extended the lead to 10-5 and then to 14-8. The lead continued to go to a 21-12 advantage before the Bulldogs won 25-14. An early 2-2 tie started the third set. West Central grabbed a 5-4 lead and slowly grew it five points, 13-8. The Trojans continued to roll to a 21-11 lead. The Bulldogs cut the lead down to 23-17, but West Central scored the final two points to win 25-17.
West Central would pick up the momentum in the fourth set. After an getting an early 5-4 lead, the Trojans went on a 7-3 run to make the score 12-7. They would slowly extend the lead to 20-12 before finishing the fourth set with a 25-12 win to force a fifth and final set.
The Trojans took an early 4-2 lead to start the fifth set. They then went on a 5-1 run to push the lead to 9-3. After a 12-4 score, the Bulldogs went on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to 12-9. West Central, however, would end the rally with two straight points and then finish the match with a 15-10 victory.
West Central is the #11 seed and will play #6 Hamlin in Madison on Tuesday, November 11th at 7:00 p.m. The winner of the match will advance to the State A Tournament.
