ADAMS —The Lyle-Pacelli volleyball team took another big step at the Southland tournament Saturday.

The Athletics (8-7 overall) showed they can play with bigger schools when they took third place in the eight-team tournament by beating Southland 25-18, 25-23 in their final match of the day.

The Rebels (6-12 overall) had to settle for fourth place and Blooming Prairie finished second place when it lost to Medford 25-18, 25-23 in the the title match.

LP was tied 18-18 in its second game with Southland when Annie Holtz came up with a couple of key kills and Bethany Strouf hammered down the final point to give LP the win.

“I think we started off a little slow today and it was good to see us get back in it and play our game,” LP head coach Lindsay Leif said. “We had good transition from defense to attack and that’s what we want.”

Sarah Holtz led LP with 50 kills, Courtney Walter had 84 set assists and Strouf finished with 20 kills and 33 digs. LP also picked up a rare win over Plainview-Elgin-Millville in the tournament.

“It’s been awhile since we’ve beaten some of those teams,” Leif said. “It’s definitely a moral victory for us.”

The Awesome Blossoms (12-3 overall) had swept the Tigers just two days before Saturday’s match, but they couldn’t hold off Medford on Saturday. BP held a 9-6 lead in the first game and a 15-11 lead in the second game, but it just wasn’t able to finish the job.

“It was tough, because they’re in our subsection and now we might get a worse seeding to them because of it,” said BP middle hitter Taylor Hagen, who finished with 48 kills and 18 blocks. “It’s hard to lose to them again, but we played hard.”

It was a long day for all eight of the teams in the tournament as they put in nearly eight hours of volleyball.

BP libero Nicole Inwards definitely got her workout in as she finished with 63 digs.

“I love digging,” Inwards said. “I love what I do and I love the back row. I don’t mind it one bit and I don’t mind hitting the floor.”

The Blossoms won eight of their seven matches last week and BP head coach Gina McLaughlin was pleased with her team’s effort. She knew it would be tough to beat Medford twice in one week.

“They are a strong team and we knew that beating them twice in one week would be an extreme challenge,” she said. “They controlled the pass better than we did resulting in more attack attempts.”

The Rebels (6-12 overall) were led by Morgan Schmitz, who had 38 kills and 31 digs and Katilin Webber, who had 16 kills and 25 digs.

“Today was a great learning experience for the girls,” Southland head coach Andrea McKichan said. “We played really well at times, but are still looking to improve from today.  We need to clean up our game a bit, but I am really proud of the progress they’ve made this season.”

LP stats: Sarah Holtz, 50 kills, 2 ace blocks; Madison Truckenmiller, 24 kills, 6 ace serves, 3 ace blocks; Bethany Strouf, 20 kills, 5 ace serves, 33 digs; Courtney Walter, 84 set assists, 9 ace serves, 22 digs, 5 kills; Brooke Walter, 15 ace serves; Annie Holtz, 7 kills, 2 ace blocks; Zoe Lester, 17 digs

Southland stats: Haley Laack, 3 ace blocks, 5 kills; Delanie Barnes, 9 digs; Hannah Holst, 5 aces,16 kills, 29 digs; Kaitlyn Kirtz, 43 assists, 14 digs; Katlin Webber, 16 kills, 25 digs, 2 ace blocks; Kylie Canterbury, 2 aces, 10 digs; Maddi Loecher, 5 aces, 26 assists, 13 digs; Morgan Schmitz, 7 aces, 38 kills, 31 digs; Olivia Gray, 3 aces, 25 kills, 30 digs, 3 ace blocks

BP stats: Taylor Hagen, 48 kills, 3 aces, 6 digs, 18 blocks; Madison Worke, 13 kills, 12 aces, 25 digs, 75 set assists, 10 blocks; Nicole Inwards, 3 kills, 10 aces, 63 digs; Sara Noble, 12 kills, 6 aces, 55 digs, 2 set assists, 1 block; Lizz Willert, 5 kills, 3 aces, 43 digs, 28 set assists, 2 blocks; Lauren Larkoski, 21 kills, 3 aces, 30 digs, 1 set assist, 12 blocks; Molly Walsh, 12 kills, 4 digs, 7 blocks; Delaney Nelson, 4 kills, 1 ace, 2 digs, 2 assists; Macaela Jensen, 3 kills, 4 digs; Gracie Grunklee, 2 kills, 1 assist; Mariah Holland, 1 ace, 1 dig, 2 assists

LYLE-PACELLI SCORES

Kingsland def. LP 27-26, 16-25; LP def. Schaeffer Academy 25-12, 25-22; Medford def. LP 25-16, 25-12; LP def. PEM 11-25, 25-17, 15-12; Medford def. LP 25-20, 25-22; LP def. Southland 25-18, 25-23

SOUTHLAND SCORES

PEM def. Southland 25-20, 25-16; BP def. Southland 25-21, 25-20; Southland def. AC 25-18, 19-25; Southland def. Kingsland 25-23, 21-25, 15-6; LP def. Southland 25-18, 25-23

BLOOMING PRAIRIE SCORES

BP def. AC 25-16, 25-13; BP def. Southland 25-21, 25-20; BP def. PEM 25, 22, 25-14; BP def. Schaeffer Academy 25-16, 25-16; BP def. Southland 25-12, 25-8; Medford def. BP 25-19, 25-23