The Lady Panthers survived two match points to beat KC in five, 25-20, 12-25, 25-17, 21-25, 18-16.
"It's a heartbreaker for the kids," KC interim coach Rachel Colsman said. "Losses like this are just hard. These girls have worked so hard and they've made such improvement this season. They left their hearts out there on that court. We gave them a run for their money."
PV's gym turned into a petri dish of tension late as Kirtland came within a point of their second upset in two days.
The Lady Broncos (9-10, 2-1 postseason) went 0-7 against District 1-4A opponents other than Farmington during the regular season. They handled the Lady Scorps again Tuesday to advance to the quarterfinals where many felt their season would end.
Feeding off passionate surges, KC overcame a 2-1 deficit to beat Aztec on the road Thursday.
A vocal crowd and an emotional team repeated the feat Friday, overcoming a 2-1 PV advantage and rallying from a 13-6 hole in Game 5 to secure two match points.
A block by Emily Bushard and a kill by Alix Russell preserved the game for the Panthers, and PV escaped the frenzied affair as Brittany Jackson's block advanced them to the District 1-4A finals.
One more infraction, missed block or errant pass and KC would've become an unlikely opponent for Shiprock.
Instead, PV will brave the Lady Chieftains' crowd tonight at 7 p.m.
Both teams already should be in the
"I'm really proud of my girls for pulling it out. That was really tense," he said. "There was a lot of pressure on their backs. I mean, one of my girls was just crying because she was so stressed trying to make those last serves."
The Panthers have played a number of five-game matches this year, splitting six before beating Aztec and Kirtland Central in consecutive outings.
"It's good for us to do that, but I don't need to do that anymore," Becker said. "I don't need that much stress and I think that's a little more than their hearts can take, too."
Said Jackson: "I'm just really glad we won. It was a very intense game. I'm probably gonna have lots of gray hairs tomorrow from all this stress. It taught us that we need to step up and not dig holes."
Becker inserted defensive specialist Brittany Softka late, opting to take pressure off Russell by lessening her responsibilities. He called his defense the difference in a game decided by the slimmest of margins and said he might stick with the lineup change against Shiprock.
KC snuck 15 service aces past PV and won a majority of points that became scrambling, improvisational tasks.
Some of those forced the Panthers out of position and prevented them from optimal sets Jackson, Bushard and Russell, most of which careened off the gym floor on Kirtland's side.
"When we're passing, our offense is amazing. When we're not, it's pretty bad," Becker said. "The one game we got just hammered really bad (25-12 in Game 2), we had 10 passes in a row that were just terrible. You can't pass like that at this level and get away with it."
Bushard led PV with 20 kills. Jackson added 17 and 10 blocks to go with 47 assists for Mariah Culpepper.
Taylor Yazzie paced the Broncos with 12 kills, seven blocks and four aces as KC got contributions from a number of different players.
The Broncos won a combined one game in two regular-season losses to PV but peaked during the district tournament. They exuded confidence they lacked earlier this season, Jackson noticed from across the net.
"At the beginning of the year, once we got behind we tended to defeat ourselves. It was in the body language," Colsman said. "We've been working with the girls all week (on mental toughness). Just because you make a mistake doesn't mean it stops here. You go, OK, my bad.' You shake yourself off, you pick yourself up and you do it again.
"And you can see what they can do when inspired to do so. That says more about their character that they battled back than anything I could ever say."
Navajo Prep 3, Questa 0
The Lady Eagles (14-6, 2-0 postseason) earned a confidence-building state tournament win Friday in three games, 25-14, 25-7, 25-23.
Prep had struggled to play volleyball to their potential at the beginning of matches but attacked the Lady Wildcats early.
"I was very pleased tonight with how the girls came out. We were ready to play," coach Rainy Crisp said.
Alexis Archambault and Veronica Redhouse neutralized Questa's pair of hitters at the net, Prep's main focus leading up to the game.
Archambault finished with nine kills and six blocks. Bridget Becenti added seven aces in a balanced effort for Prep.
There are a lot of new faces on the team that lost to Texico in the 2A state championship last year, but Crisp plans to rely on the returnees' experience as the Eagles advance to pool play.
She stressed consistency as the key to this year's success. Prep let Questa get ahead during Friday's Game 3 but put the match away, a sign of improvement to Crisp.
"We're bringing everything together right now and we're playing a lot better as a team," she said.
The Eagles advance to Pool B, an eight-team group that likely includes No. 1 Texico and No. 3 Bosque.
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