BLOOMING PRAIRIE — The No. 7 seeded Awesome Blossoms weren’t exactly dominant against No. 10 seeded LeRoy-Ostrander in a Section 1A West tournament opener, but Blooming Prairie was able to pick up a sweep to keep its season alive.

The Blossoms (9-15 overall) won the match by scores of 25-15, 25-13, 25-22 and they will play at No. 2 Hayfield 7 p.m. Thursday.

BP led 19-15 in the first set when Alyssa Krohnberg served six straight points to close it out and the last set was tied at 20-20, before BP rallied to close it out.

“I feel like we weren’t as clean and as sharp as we have been in the past,” BP head coach Ranell Kittelson said. “I think we have a few things to pick up. Sometimes we play to the intensity of other teams.”

Lauren Larkoski and Krohnberg each had nine kills to lead BP in the win. Larkoski said she felt BP played better than it did the last time it played the Cardinals, when BP lost 2-1 in the Hayfield tournament Sept. 12.

“We’ve been doing a lot of defensive work,” Larkoski, a senior, said. “We kept it together [tonight], but we need to work on our communication a lot.”

LO (10-17 overall) was led by senior hitter Sam Siskow, who had eight kills. LO head coach Joe Kuchenmeister said his team just wasn’t consistent enough, and he also credited BP for improving.

“We had too many errors on serve receive and we just weren’t able to get an aggressive offensive attack at the net,” he said. “Blooming has improved so much defensively and their passing was pretty spot on.”

LO will graduate four seniors from this year’s team. Kuchenmeister said those seniors have played a big role in improving the LO volleyball program.

“When I took over the team a couple of years ago, we were coming off a three win season. Each year we’ve taken steps in the right direction,” Kuchenmeister said. “We had aspirations to do a little better this year and those seniors were the reason why were able to look at something better.”

BP played Hayfield once this season and they lost to the Vikings 2-1 in the Hayfield tournament Sept. 12. Larkoski feels BP will be up for the challenge on Thursday.

“We’re ready to play them,” Larkoski said. “We’ve played them a lot and we’re ready to beat them.”

BP stats: Abby Wayne, 22 set assists, 2 aces, 5 digs; Alyssa Krohnberg, 6 ace serves, 9 kills, 1 block; Courtney Wobschall, 2 aces, 4 kills, 3 blocks; Lauren Larkoski, 9 kills, 7 digs, 2 blocks; Leah Inwards, 2 kills, 5 digs, 2 blocks

LO stats: Sam Siskow, 8 kills, 1 block; Haley Hungerholt, 2 aces, 2 kills, 6 set assists; Kate Helgeson, 9 set assists, 2 digs; Rochelle Hovde, 1 kill, 1 block; Abby Kiefer, 4 kills; Shelby Lunning, 5 digs, 2 aces; Maia O’Byrne, 2 aces, 4 digs; Ashley Norby, 1 kill