Salpointe outlasted Cactus 3-1 Wednesday night to advance to the quarterfinal round of the 4A Conference playoffs where the Lancers will travel to No. 3 Flagstaff for a shot at the semifinals. Coincidentally, both teams made it to the Division II semifinals last year.

Cactus finished the year with a 16-13 record and a No. 11 ranking, one year after missing the playoffs altogether. The Cobras made it to the D-III championship match in 2013 and again 2014 but came up short both times.

No. 6 Salpointe cruised to a 25-12 win in the first set against Cactus thanks in large part to eight aces with junior setter Peyton Lewis recording four in a row at one point. Cactus rebounded to take the second set 25-20 after building an insurmountable 7-0 lead early on.

Salpointe came right back and built an 11-3 lead in the third set before coasting to a 25-17 win to go up 2-1. It looked like Cactus would rebound again in the fourth set but the Lancers slowly pulled away to take a 19-13 lead. The Cobras were able to cut that lead down to 19-17 but junior hitter Alanna Duarte put down three of her 15 kills down the stretch for the 25-19 win.

Sophomore outside Brittnie Henige only recorded four kills but her five blocks helped keep the Cobras in the match. At 6-foot-2, Henige looks to be a major part of the Cobra future.

“It was a good season and we did pretty well,” Henige said. “The older girls took the underclassmen under their wings and we pulled together.”

On the other side, The Lancers have six sophomores and a freshman in their rotation with only four seniors leading the way. One of those seniors is outside hitter Maggie Schepelmann. Schepelmann was the perfect complement to Duarte and she finished with eight kills.

“I think we made some progress this year,” Schepelmann explained. “We only have four seniors so there wasn’t a lot of leadership to begin with but we stepped up and I think we are really playing for each other now.

“I’m super excited to see what the rest of the season holds for us.”