For five years the Lake Mills volleyball team has been perfect. For five years, no other team has won the North Iowa Conference the conference tournament title.

Not any longer.

The Osage Green Devils handed the Bulldogs (31-3) their first conference loss in five years and snapped a 62-match winning streak that started in 2003 at the NIC tournament. Osage defeated Lake Mills 15-25, 25-13, 25-23, 21-25, 15-11 Monday in the NIC tournament championship game to reclaim the spot it had held for many years before the Bulldogs started to dominate the conference.

The match unfolded like a great dramatic tale with Lake Mills jumping out to an 8-0 lead as many would expect. The Bulldogs eventually stretched the lead to 10 points and delivered a 25-15 win like a five-time NIC tournament champion would be expected to start a championship game. But the second game took an unanticipated turn and it was the Green Devils who started to pull away, outscoring Lake Mills 11-4 down the stretch for a 25-13 win and evening the match at a game apiece. The mighty Bulldogs were wounded and with its confidence growing, Osage took game three 25-23 — the most contested of the five games, neither team had a lead larger than five points the entire way.

But just when it appeared the Green Devils had the indomitable Lake Mills squad on the ropes, the Bulldogs rallied and jumped out to an early six point lead. Osage fought back and got to within two at 20-18 and Lake Mills head coach Jim Boehmer called a timeout so his team could regroup and finish out the game. The Bulldogs scored the next five points as Jordynn Brackey put the team on her back and scored three points to seal the 25-21 win. Brackey finished with 25 kills in the match.

Then came the decisive fifth game, both teams with their backs against the wall, one with nothing to lose, the other with plenty at stake. Osage came out determined to end the game quickly as it rattled off seven straight points before Lake Mills got on the board. Slowly the Bulldogs fought their way back into the final game making incredible plays, only to see the Green Devils return their shots with an equally amazing display. It became clear that the early deficit had been too large to overcome as the closest Lake Mills would pull to was four points and lost 15-11.

After the final point was played Osage fans rushed the court, players, parents and coaches had tears falling from their faces as they knew immediately the impact of what they had accomplished.

Bulldog players were also filled with tears of disappointment for not being able to maintain a streak that had started before any of them ever reached high school.

“It certainly was not a lack of effort,” Boehmer said. “We just didn’t execute.”

The win gave the Green Devils their 20th NIC tournament title, more than any of the other schools combined.

“They were far more aggressive,” Boehmer said. “They took us out of our game.”

To say the Bulldogs have dominated the North Iowa Conference would be a gross understatement. Lake Mills has won 11 regular season titles, five tournament titles, and has had the most all-conference selections with eight in one season. In the last 12 years the Bulldogs have won the regular season title nine times and haven’t finished worse than third in 13 years.

“We feel real good about the regular season title,” Boehmer said. “We would have liked this to be the exclamation point.”

It was somewhat fitting that the streak ended at the same place it started. In 2003 in the pool play rounds of the NIC tournament, Lake Mills started the streak and rolled that momentum into its first tournament title since 1975. It marked the beginning of the program that elevated itself above and beyond the conference. Does Monday’s lose signal the decline? Certainly not, the Bulldogs are ranked No. 6 in the state and had an exhausting evening to say the least.

In the semifinal game against Forest City, Lake Mills rallied from a 2-1 deficit to take the next three games to make it to the finals. The energy and emotion expelled during that match had an effect in the final match.

“That showed a lot of guts,” Boehmer said.

It was just the third loss of the season for the Bulldogs, whose other losses have come to Algona-Garrigan, a 3A school ranked No. 4 in the state.

Lake Mills and Osage will meet again Oct. 21 in the first round of the regional playoffs and the Bulldogs host that game.