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The Highwood Mustangs Senior Girls Volleyball team came out on top of their first playoff game against Holy Cross Collegiate Hawks (HCC) on Wednesday (Oct. 30) with a 3-2 set win in their best-of-five set series.
The Mustangs and Hawks were evenly matched as Highwood finished fourth in the season and Holy Cross finished fifth. With the win, the Mustangs will advance to the next round.
Highwood started off on the right track in taking the first set 25-20. The 20-minute set saw the Mustangs hold on to a consistent five-point lead, HCC made a game of it late in the set, closing the score to 22-20. Highwood held on to take the first set.
The Mustangs took a narrow win of 26-24 in the second set to go up 2-0 on HCC. Highwood held the lead throughout the second set and even had a four-point lead for the first half of the set. The Hawks managed to make a comeback with a 24-23 score but the Mustangs didn't budge.
HCC made things interesting by taking the third set 25-23 in the 25-minute set. The Hawks held a three-point lead for the majority of the set, Highwood would come back and make it a 24-23 set score, HCC however would get the final point in the set to make it a 2-1 volleyball game.
The fourth set saw Highwood come out strong with a 10-5 lead over the Hawks. HCC battled back to keep their playoff dream alive tying it up at 11-11. They would battle back and forth to a 22-22 tie late in the set. The Hawks found a way to stay alive taking the final two points for a 25-23 win and pushing it to a fifth and final set.
With the fifth set being the tie-breaker, the winning team would only have to score 15 points in the final set. Highwood started very strong leading 8-2, HCC wouldn't roll over though getting the score to 13-8 in the final set. The Mustangs powered through and picked up the next two points to solidify their appearance in the next round of playoffs.
Highwood will now travel to Strathcona-Tweedsmuir (STS) to face the Spartans tonight (Nov. 4) for their second-round matchup. STS finished first in the rankings and if the Mustangs are victorious they will move on to the final round.