Photo by Ari Selvey: Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther's Londyn Bowers (7) gets a hit between two Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart defenders during a Section 2A Volleyball Tournament game Thursday at St. Peter High School.

ST. PETER — Top-seeded Buffalo Lake-Hector Stewart stayed tough during the second round of the Section 2A volleyball tournament on Thursday, coming away with a 27-25, 25-18, 25-17 sweep of ninth-seeded Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther Thursday at St. Peter High School.

“They serve well,” GHEC/T/ML head coach TJ Williams said. “They have three good players. If you lose track of them at the net, you’re in trouble, and there were a few times that we lost track of them on our serve. We weren’t looking to see where they were at, and they came out and got a kill right after that.”

GHEC/T/ML got a 19-kill performance out of outside hitter Londyn Bowers, but it wasn’t enough to avoid the sweep.

“Our energy level was high,” Williams said. “We came in and we knew we could play with them. There’s a reason why they’re number seven in the state. When we play, there’s not a team that we can’t play with, and we knew that. A few little errors here and there, and I think we got stuck in a serve-receive that we gave them five points in that first set. We come out of that serve-receive with only giving up one, and that game is ours and that might have turned the momentum.”

Aside from her 19 kills, Bowers had 20 digs and two aces in the game. Keira Benck, Kayla Mattson and Ava Donohue each had two blocks, with Benck adding 27 set assists.

BLHS started the first set with a 3-1 lead thanks to kills by Chloe Schultz and Lily Hubin. The Jaguars battled back to tie it at 6 on a kill by Bowers and the team traded a few points before the Mustangs went on a 5-0 lead, led by two aces by EB Ovitt, to take a 13-8 lead. GHEC/T/ML called a timeout, and one again the Jaguars fought to cut the lead to 16-14 with three more kills by Bowers. The teams continued to battle back, with a kill by Lily Hubin bringing the game to a 22-22 tie. Bowers got a kill to take a 25-24 lead, but BLHS took the final three points of the match, with two kills coming from Lauren Hubin, to take the 27-25 win.

The Jaguars were the ones to take an early lead in Set 2, going up 3-1. BLHS fought to tie the game at 9 on a kill by Lily Hubin, then the Mustangs extended the lead out to 18-14 on an ace by Kelsey Ulrich to force a Jaguars timeout. GHEC/T/ML cut the lead down to 21-18, bringing out a BLHS timeout, and the Mustangs scored the final four points of the game, with a block by Lily Hubin sealing the 25-18 win.

BLHS held a 6-3 lead early in Set 3, but the Jaguars went on a 3-0 run, led by two kills by Bowers, to tie the game at 6. BLHS went on a 7-1 run to go up 13-7, but GHEC/T/ML responded with a 6-0 run to tie it again at 13. BLHS scored the next 6 points with three kills by Lauren Hubin, and an ace by Ulrich ace ended the set and the match with a 25-17 BLHS win.

GHEC/T/ML ends its season with a 14-15 record.