Members of the Panama volleyball team celebrate after winning the Section VI Class D semifinal over Chautauqua Lake on Thursday. Photo by Debb Bailey

MAYVILLE — No. 3 Panama volleyball will return to the Section VI Class D volleyball finals against top-ranked North Collins after claiming a semifinal win against No. 2 Chautauqua Lake on Thursday night.

The Panthers (15-2) rode a strong start to a four-set win, 25-16, 17-25, 26-24, 25-19, thanks to another red-hot night of offense from Jo Bailey and key contributions from freshman Sarah Harvey.

The victory sets up a Saturday title matchup with No. 1 North Collins, which upended No. 4 Randolph, 25-15, 19-25, 25-11, 26-24, in the other semifinal last night.

For the Panthers, Coach Tammy Hosier kept her message simple.

“My biggest message was to stay positive and be confident and to not get into your own head because we have a very young team. Four girls moved up from jayvee,” Hosier said. “The first time we played Randolph early in the year, these new girls, the inexperience was hard on them because they haven’t played at this level and at that fast pace. We talked about how (Chautauqua Lake) is a great team and well coached and that they are going to come out strong. We need to play our game, we need to be moving and talking and covering the court. We tweaked a few little things in coverage to make sure people were where they needed to be.”

Early momentum was likely to be a key last night with the teams splitting a two-game series in the regular season, and the opening set favored the Panthers.

Ashlyn Harvey got started out with a service ace on her way to a team-high 16 points, while Bailey helped the Panthers to an 8-5 lead with back-to-back blocks and a kill. A kill from Lilly Odell and a back-to-back service aces from Sarah Harvey would make it 13-6 Panama.

Bailey would continue to rip overhand shots and make blocks up front, while the strong serving from the freshman continued to secure the opening game.

“I was very proud of Sarah,” Hosier said. “Sarah came through tonight. She was a player who worked hard on keeping the positive mindset. With a positive mindset you can overcome everything. I would say probably both Jo and Sarah had, if not their best games tonight, one of the best. Again it is the same thing with Jo as with Sarah, that positive mindset.”

Chautauqua Lake was undeterred by the hot start, and opened up a 12-7 lead in the second frame as Jenna Waters ripped a service winner off the net before Lily Woodis grabbed two straight points on a kill and a push winner.

Due to Panama’s hot start on offense, the Thundberbirds were forced out of their normal scheme early on.

“I think we started out real slow in the first, like hitting everything out of bounds,” Thunderbirds coach Joanne Meadows said. “I think that is just an adrenaline thing. I just said, ‘Take a deep breath and relax, this is just like any other game, go out and play your game.’ They just needed to refocus a little bit and were a little nerved up going in I think. I think to start the game we weren’t in system. We were just playing defense the whole time. Jo Bailey was crushing the ball and playing out of her mind, so we kind of were just on defense. We weren’t getting Lily the ball a lot because our setter was having to go everywhere.”

An ace by Woodis and a block from Jessica Wiemer would complete Chautauqua Lake’s second-set win.

The third set would feature some of the most competitive play of the match, with neither team seeing a significant lead until back-to-back plays by Bailey gave Panama a 20-17 margin.

Chautauqua Lake would undo that with an overhand by Waters and strong serving from Ava Olson, but in the end Panama would pick up the win following a Thunderbirds overhand that was ruled long, despite protests that the ball was tipped.

The fourth set would follow a similar path to the third, with Panama earning a lead at 18-16 after consecutive overhands from Bailey.

Serving from Bailey and an over hand by Sarah Harvey would complete the win.

NOTES: Bailey would finish with 18 kills, seven blocks, nine digs, eight points and two aces; Maddie Johnson had 43 assists and 10 digs; Sarah Harvey had 11 kills, four digs, nine points and five aces; Ashlyn Harvey added eight kills, six blocks and 14 digs; while Marra Hovey added 24 digs and Mandy Brink 13 digs on defense. … Ava Olsen had seven kills, 18 digs and 18 assists for Chautauqua Lake; Woodis collected10 kills, three aces, four digs and four blocks; Brynn Engdahl contributed seven kills, two aces and 11 digs; while Jenna Waters chipped in 27 digs.