BLOOMFIELD -- The Bloomfield Wildcats volleyball team secured an important SCAA win Thursday night at Bloomfield High School.
The Wildcats beat the Woodland Cardinals 25-18, 25-22 to improve to 3-1 in conference play.
The win was important because only the top four teams in the conference standings are eligible to compete for the SCAA tournament championship. The tournament starts Oct. 8 in Advance.
Following play Thursday night, three teams have one or fewer conference losses: Advance (5-0), Dexter (5-1) and Bloomfield (3-1). Bernie and Woodland have two losses apiece and are fourth and fifth, respectively, in the league standings.
"That was a great conference win," Bloomfield coach Haley Silman said. "That sets us up really good because Monday's our seed meeting, so (beating Woodland is) some good ammo to have."
Thursday was Bloomfield's senior night, and the four of them all contributed to the win.
"Lily (Warrick) brought it tonight. I'm so proud of her," Silman said. "She hit the ball so well. She was able to read the ball really well at the net."
Warrick finished with six kills, five digs and a service ace.
Silman also commended seniors Bailey Below, Creylee Huddleston and Michaela Tidwell for their performances.
Below had team-highs of eight kills, six assists and two aces to go along with seven digs, a team-high she shared with Karsynn Phillips.
Huddleston had five assists and five digs, and Tidwell finished with two kills.
"Michaela had a couple little tips (in the second set) that were critical at that point," Silman said.
Bloomfield (10-7-1) led for most of the first set, although the Cardinals held brief leads of 10-9 and 11-10.
The Wildcats strung together five straight points on the serve of Below to take a 15-11 lead. She had a kill-block and an ace during that stretch.
"Our serve-receive game was off tonight," Woodland coach Melissa Rinacke said. "If you can't pass the ball to your setter, you can't run your offense. That was our main problem tonight."
The Cardinals (14-8-1, 2-2) twice cut their deficit to two points (15-13 and 16-14) before Bloomfield closed the set on 9-4 run that included a pair of kills by Warrick, a kill by Below and an ace by Molly Below.
The lead changed hands nine times and the score was tied on 12 occasions in the second set.
The Wildcats went ahead to stay with a 7-1 run. Bailey Below's kill tied the score 17, and her ace gave them an 18-17 advantage. By the time the run ended, Bloomfield led 23-18.
Woodland cuts its deficit to 24-22 on a pair of kills by Addie Johnson, but the Wildcats clinched the win on a kill by Eva Hester.
"I think we just kind of dug in, and we wanted it. They went out fighting," Silman said of her team's strong finish. "We like to kind of make it exciting, a little too exciting for my taste, but they put it on there at the end every time, and I couldn't be happier about it."
Johnson paced Woodland with six kills, Emma Brown had four, and Tiana Wiseman had three.