ALDEN — Every cinderella team begins their quest somewhere.

For the Alden-Conger their story began with a 3-2 come from behind victory over the Martin Luther/ Granada-Huntley-East Chain Knights (4-22) on Monday night in the Section 2A girls’ volleyball opening round.

Sophomore Brittany Waters led team to close out the final two sets, finishing with 24 kills.

“I told the girls we have all the tools,” said Jolene Bute, Alden-Conger’s head coach. “We just need to put them all together right now.

‘We can be the cinderella team. I truly believe that.”

A-C entered the tournament as the No. 7-seed after finishing the regular season with an 8-17 record.

After winning the first set in dominating fashion, A-C dropped the next two games, setting up a win or go home scenario for the Knights.

Waters wasn’t going to let that happen and left it all on the court to do so.

“I said to the girls, ‘No. 4 stepped up to the plate tonight,’ Bute said. “She got it done for us. She really did.”

After trailing as late in the fourth game as 17-16, the Knights worked their way back into the lead and closed out the victory on a thunderous Waters spike straight down center court setting up the tie-breaking Game 5.

A-C jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, but surrendered a number of points to ML/ GHEC on three service errors and allowed two aces.

Holding a slim 10-8 advantage, Kelsey Behnke stepped to the service line and buried an ace into the heart of the ML/ GHEC defense.

Ariel Keller slammed down the 11th point before Waters went back to work, scoring points on a block and delivering the final three kills of the game.

“I felt so confident when Brittany was in the front row at the end of the game, I knew we were going to win,” Bute said. “I had that much confidence in her.”

A-C began the night opening up a 14-0 lead over the No. 10-seed in Game 1, before securing the victory 25-8.

Both teams exchanged the lead 15 times during the second game. Miscommunication on the A-C side allowed the opponents to slip away with two straight game, 24-26 and 15-25, before the Knights rebounded during the final sets.

Next up for the Knights will be a stout test against the No.2-seed Martin County West.

A-C played MCW to four close games last Thursday, only two points separated three games.

“Right now I think we can peak,” Bute said. “We just need to be a little more consistent and get the job done.”