BRAINERD -- Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa overcame a poor finish in the opening game to upend Bertha-Hewitt 12-25, 25-23, 28-26, 25-21 Thursday to win its 10th straight match and reach the Section 5A final for the third straight year.
It's the sixth straight year the Jaguars will be playing in a section final; BBE was in the Section 6AA final in each season from 2004-06. The Jaguars (27-5) will meet Nevis (25-5) at 7 p.m. Saturday in Brainerd in the section championship.
There were seven ties in the first half of the opening game before Bertha-Hewitt scored the last 13 points to take an early 1-0 lead in the match. The Bears (27-5) stayed in control for most of the second game, owning a 17-11 lead at one point, but six hitting errors let BBE get back in it and tie the match.
Maggie Gruber uncorked 11 kills in a back-and-forth third game that featured 12 ties to give BBE a 2-1 lead over Bertha-Hewitt.
Complete statistics were not available at press time.
