One win is all the Kelly Road Roadrunners senior girls volleyball team needs for a triple-A provincial berth.
The Roadrunners won both their matches Friday in the 2011 North Central zone championship at Duchess Park to advance straight to the 3 p.m. final today.
Fresh off a stunning straight-sets upset over the host Condors, Kelly Road followed up with a 25-10, 25-19 win over the South Peace Penguins from Dawson Creek.
Alex McKenna, the Roadrunners first-year setter, said she was thrilled to play for gold and a chance to dethrone the Condors as zone champs.
"I'm very excited for the final," said McKenna, adding she's not worried about the layoff between games. "It gives us time to get our heads into the game and get pumped."
Kelly Road fell behind 7-1 in the second set to the Penguins, a common affliction that is the team's nemesis.
"Sometimes we think we have it too much [in our grasp] and it gets to our heads, " said McKenna, 16.
"But we learned to fight through it."
No doubt the confidence in beating the seven-time zone champion Condors in the early game Friday helped the Roadrunners fight through the adversity.
The Roadrunners' Lorin Castle didn't flinch when she stepped to the service line with her team trailing 23-22 in the second set against a Duchess Park Condors team playing in front of a rowdy home crowd.
Castle wound up serving her team to the straight sets win, 25-21, 25-23, in the opening round-robin game of the tournament.
"They were nerve-wracking but you've got to do it," said Castle, adding she had confidence the Roadrunners would win when she woke up Friday. "It's fun [with] the adrenaline rush."
Kelly Road took advantage of a slow start and several unforced errors by the Condors - the seven-time zone champs - in the opening set to jump out to a 10-4 lead and were able to hang on when their opponents fought back.
Condors' power-hitter Kate Quelch said having their home crowd cheering them on may have caused a bit of distraction.
"I don't think we were quite ready to start," said Quelch, 17.
"We were really excited and maybe that was the problem - we weren't in the right mindset - especially playing in front of the school, people get a little bit of anxiety and it might have contributed."
Duchess Park fell behind 9-4 in the second set, but a time-out helped turn the game in their favour and they battled back to tie the game, eventually pulling ahead.
"We kind of went into a pit and then had to do whatever we could to get ourselves out of it and we did," said Castle.
The middle of the set seesawed back and forth, until the Condors broke a 17-17 tie, eventually pulling out to a 21-18 lead and looking like they would force a third and deciding set. But the Roadrunners wouldn't give up.
"We don't let the balls touch the floor and that's how we win," said Castle, 16.
The Condors and Penguins played a meaningless game Friday to wrap up the round robin, but will meet again today at 11 a.m. in the semifinal for another chance to beat the Roadrunners.
"We're just going to have to get through that and push harder in the next few games, because we know we're good enough to do it and we know we can," said Quelch.
