SIDNEY – The B-5 District Final at Sidney High School on Saturday was everything that a championship match should be. Tremendous effort, electrifying action, and sheer determination by both teams involved. And when the dust settled in the Cabela’s Athletic Facility, the Sidney Lady Raiders had earned a hard-fought 26-24, 28-26, 25-15 win over Omaha Duchesne Academy and secured themselves a bid to next week’s state tournament.

Sidney, the number five seed, faced a formidable task in the number twelve seed Omaha Duchesne Academy. The Cardinals, who came into Saturday’s match with a 12-21 record, had played forty percent of their schedule against Class A competition. Of the sixteen Class B schools on the Cardinals schedule, nine were playing in a district final on Saturday.

The first two sets were a battle! The first set saw the score see-saw with neither team able to break away from the other. The biggest lead for either team was four and the two teams were tied nine times, including the last time at 24-24. Junior Karsyn Leeling and senior Gabby Fortner closed out the set with kills to give the first set to the Lady Raiders 26-24.

The second set was a set of runs. The Cardinals got the first run and jumped out to a 12-4 lead only to see Sidney answer with a 9-0 run to capture the lead at 13-12. From there the two teams were tied eleven times, the last being 26-26. A Chloe Ahrens kill and a Cardinal error gave the Lady Raiders a two sets to none advantage.

After erasing an eight-point Duchesne lead in the second set, Sidney took advantage of a demoralized Cardinal club in the third set. The Lady Raiders pounded nine kills on the way to a 15-5 advantage and never looked back. With Sidney leading 24 11, the Cardinals fought off four match points but couldn’t escape the inevitable as the Lady Raiders earned their 14th trip to the state tournament with a straight set win.

Junior Karsyn Leeling led three Lady Raiders with double digit kills with 13. Sophomore Kayla Westby added 12 kills and Chloe Ahrens chipped in 10 kills.

Sidney (28-6) enters the Nebraska School Activities Association Class B State Championships as the number 6 seed and will face number 3 seed Norris (28-7) in the quarterfinals at 10 a.m. MDT on Wednesday at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

News Channel Nebraska will follow the Lady Raiders on radio station Cheyenne County Country at 1340 AM, 95.7 FM, newschannelnebraska.com, and on the free NCN app.