Prairie City Panther Katie Hire (1) slams the ball over the net with Dayville/Monument Tigers Katie Barker (left, 4) and Aubreianna Osborne (7) attempting to block.

The No. 4-seeded Prairie City Panthers defeated the No. 2-seed Adrian Antelopes 3-2 for third place at the 1A High Desert League Volleyball Tournament Saturday in John Day.

As third-place finishers, the Panthers will advance to the state playoffs, which begins with Round One on Wednesday, Oct. 30, the opponent, time and place to be determined.

There was a lot of back and forth in Saturday’s games between the Panthers and Antelopes, Prairie City claiming the victory with scores of 25-15, 16-25, 25-17, 10-25 and 15-9.

“We knew the girls had it in them the whole time,” said Prairie City head coach Jordan Bass. “When the girls played Adrian in Adrian (earlier in the season), we didn’t have our best day, so going into today I just hoped everything would come together.”

“I always tell them, I’m never going to stop demanding their best and clearly it was back and forth a lot,” Bass said. “It was good to see that those girls were mentally tough today and were able to get it done.”

On the way to third at the tournament, Prairie City beat the Dayville/Monument Tigers 3-1 in Game One, then fell to the No. 1-seeded Crane Mustangs, Crane winning 3-0.

This evening, Jordan Valley was facing Crane — both teams go by Mustangs — in the championship match for the tournament title. Both teams will advance to state.

A full story will be available online Monday and in next Wednesday’s edition of the Blue Mountain Eagle.