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The Riverside Lady Dawgs fought past the Stanton Viqueens 3-2 on Monday night in a Class 1A Region 1 Semifinals match. Riverside won the tight match 25-19, 20-25, 27-25, 22-25, 16-14.

The night was full of momentum swings in front of a packed house. Each team traded control of the first two sets and the third was back and forth. A late five point rally got Riverside the lead and they scored four of the last five points to close it out. Stanton built a big lead in the fourth before seeing Riverside rally all the way back to momentarily lead 20-19. Stanton regrouped and scored 6 of the last 8 to tie the match up at two sets each. The fifth was nip and tuck again. Each team had multiple leads. The Viqueens had a match-point chance at 14-13 but Riverside got a big kill from Veronica Andrusyshyn to keep it alive. The Lady Dawgs then scored the last two to take the match. The last point came at the end of a long rally when Mack Olmstead-Mitchell ripped a shot through the block attempt of two Viqueen defenders to win it. Olmstead-Mitchell described the play.

Riverside Coach Brooke Flathers said they just continued to talk about taking it point-by-point in tough moments and they were ready.

It was a great atmosphere for volleyball and Olmstead-Mitchell said it was awesome to have the support of a big crowd.

Coach Flathers said the message during their last timeout when they were down 14-13 was to just believe.

Riverside will try to carry the momentum forward when they face LeMars Gehlen Catholic in the 1A Region 1 Final on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. That match is scheduled to be played in Denison.

Riverside Stats:

Ayla Richardson – 36 assists, 5 kills, 13 digs, 1 block
Veronica Andrusyshyn – 17 kills, 2 assists, 5 digs, 1 block
Madison Baldwin – 11 digs, 2 assists
Mackenzie Olmstead-Mitchell – 13 kills, 1 dig
Carly Henderson – 2 assists, 12 digs
Elyssa Amdor – 2 kills, 1 assists, 14 digs, 1 block
Sophia Taylor – 8 kills, 1 assist, 4 digs, 3 blocks
Elly Henderson – 5 kills