The determination of the Lake Mills volleyball team to return to the regional final was evident Friday in its first set victory against Estherville-Lincoln Central in the Region 4 semifinals.

The 10th-ranked Bulldogs are making the trip to the regional finals for a second straight season after a 25-7, 27-25, 25-23 victory in Algona. This time it’s with a revamped roster that is 20-0 since Sept. 19 when Algona, ranked second in Class 3A won 2-0 at a tournament.

Lake Mills, which has dropped a total of two sets in its 20-match win streak, will face seventh-ranked Sheldon Tuesday in Spirit Lake with a trip to the state tournament on the line. Last season the Bulldogs went up 2-0 against Aplington-Parkersburg in the regional final, only to lose the next three sets and miss a trip to the state tournament.

Senior Darcy Nelson is the only one starter from last year’s team who experienced that loss and she doesn’t want to endure another disappointment.

“I want to win,” Nelson said. “I want to go to state so bad and I don’t want a reoccurrence of last year. I believe a lot of us girls, even though they weren’t as involved as me last year, I believe a lot of them are excited. They want to have this. They want state so much, they have that drive.”

That drive was on display in the first set Friday against the Midgets. Dominating doesn’t begin to describe how dismantling the 10th-ranked Bulldogs (37-3) were in a 25-7 first-set victory over the Midgets.

Lake Mills was up 22-3 at one point with Darcy Nelson serving 12 consecutive points before Estherville (14-16) started to score on its own. Nearly half of the seven points the Midgets scored came from Bulldog errors.

“We started game one just on fire,” said Lake Mills head coach Jim Boehmer. “We just really played hard. I don’t know if we could have played better in that first game. The problem when you just do that to somebody, then you relax … and then you back off as opposed to just playing your game and taking it to them.”

Just when Lake Mills thought it might be able to relax, Estherville came back and caught fire, pushing the Bulldogs to the limit in the second set.

Lake Mills was down 9-6 before grabbing a 12-11 lead after a Morgan Fjelstad tip.

The Bulldogs extended their lead to as much as four at 24-20 before the Midgets staged a late comeback to tie the game at 25. From there another quick set by Fjelstad, who finished with 27 assists and three ace serves, and an Amanda Lampman kill polished off Estherville 27-25 for a pivotal second set victory.

With their backs against the wall the Midgets didn’t appear ready to fade away. Estherville jumped out to a 7-3 lead, but Lake Mills regained the lead 9-8 and extended its lead to as much as five.

The Midgets rattled off five consecutive points to tie the game and the momentum was clearly swinging in their direction. The Bulldogs built another four-point advantage only to see it erased as Estherville tied the set at 22. After a Lake Mills timeout the Bulldogs wrapped up the victory with a Nelson tip and another Lampman kill.

Abbey Honesy led Lake Mills with nine kills from the right side. Lampman and Josie Brackey had eight kills each and Lindy Pins added six.

Sheldon (32-2) upset No. 6-ranked Unity Christian (27-7) 3-1 on the other side of the bracket to reach the regional final.