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The Lake Mills volleyball team capped off its regular season over the weekend with a tournament in Algona.

The Bulldogs dominated in pool play before cruising into the finals where they beat Clear Lake 2-1, dropping their only set of the day.

In their first match Lake Mills took on tournament host Algona, winning in straight sets 21-11, 21-7. Head coach Jim Boehmer said the team had lost a set to Algona earlier this season so he knew they had to play well to win.

“I thought we were aggressive in all aspects of the game and the girls were focused for the first match of the day,” Boehmer said.

In the next matchup, Lake Mills  battled with Clear Lake. The Bulldogs defeated the Lions 21-12, 21-9. Boehmer said the Lions are an athletic team that play with  a lot of energy and passion, which is huge in volleyball. He said his team got off to good starts in each of the sets, which allowed them to control the tempo.

In the final match of pool play, the Bulldogs squared off with the Mohawks of Mason City, coming out on top 21-9, 21-19.

The first set was won handily by the Bulldogs, but the second saw the Mohawks right behind. After getting out to a 15-8 second set lead, the class 4A Mohawks came back to make it tight, cutting the lead to two points 18-16.

The win over Mason City gave Lake Mills its 30th victory of the season, one of the team’s goals from the beginning of the year. But they weren’t done quite yet.

Lake Mills met with Spencer in the semifinals, defeating them 21-19, 21-15. Spencer is one of Lake Mills four losses this season, and the Bulldogs were looking forward to a shot at redemption all week, according to Boehmer.

“We trailed in set one 13-8 and we had to start executing,” he said. “It wasn’t a bad scheme, it was just poor execution, but from that point on we stepped up and began to eliminate errors and we got back into it. Set two, we controlled things from the start and built five- to seven-point leads throughout. This was a nice win for us and put us into the championship match.”

In the championship, Lake Mills again took on Clear Lake, this time dropping their first set but ultimately coming back to win 19-21, 21-7, 15-5.

Boehmer said the energy and passion shown by the Clear Lake team was what led to them taking the early one-set advantage. But building a 6-0 lead in the second set and going on multiple three-point runs in the third set it what ultimately led the Bulldog victory.

Overall through the tournament, junior Ellie Hanna led the win in the kills category, totaling 40 in five matches. Senior Brooke Bergo had 32 and junior Ella Stene had 21. Senior Kit Byars had 15.

“Ellie had a great day,” Boehmer said. “We just need her to slow the game down in her mind and stay composed. Kit didn’t have a lot of kills on the day, but she seemed to always have one when we needed her to.”

Senior Leah Moen put up an astounding 92 assists throughout the day. Boehmer said Moen did a great job of finding the right hitter at the right time, keeping the defense on their heels.

The Bulldogs also had a dominant day at the service line, going 206 for 219 and recording 26 aces.

Sophomore Taylor Vanek had 47 digs, while Moen had 27, Bergo had 22, and senior Erica Jordan and Finley Rogstad each had 20.

“We played solid defense all day,” Boehmer said. “We are still getting better at committing to every ball and finding our positioning. We talked about training our eyes and understanding how to look through the net to get set on defense.”

The Bulldogs finish the regular season with a 32-4 record and move into the regional playoffs. They received a bye in the first round, but will take on the Panthers of Central Springs tonight in the second round.

The Bulldogs defeated the Panthers 2-0 in their only other meeting this season.