RAPID CITY - The Stevens Raiders did everything in their power to keep Sioux Falls Lincoln from paying them back for last year, topping the No. 6 seed Patriots in three straight games, 25-22, 25-22 and 26-24, Thursday at the state Class AA tournament at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.

The Raiders knocked off the third-seeded Patriots in the first round of the 2007 tournament en route to a state title, and head coach Joshua Lien knew that the Sioux Falls school would be looking for a little revenge with the seeds reversed this year.

"We felt that there was a little karma involved because, you know we were the No. 6 team and Lincoln was the No. 3 and we kind of stole it from them last year," Lien said. "We thought that now we're in a position where they could steal it from us, in our home city."

The Patriots never did quite get around to much in the way of thievery, as the Raiders once again showed off their impressive depth and athleticism. Senior outside hitter Kelly Herrmann once again led the Raiders with 10 kills, but it was the superb all-around efforts of everyone in the game that got the Raiders through to the semifinals. The mass contribution didn't go unnoticed by Lien.

"We've got a very talented team, and sometimes that means that we don't really need all of our players to be playing at peak efficiency," Lien said. "A lot of nights we can afford to have one or two players have off games, but that didn't happen at all tonight. Everybody played really well tonight."

Two players who were huge for the Raiders were two who probably would have had the best excuses for playing poorly - freshmen McCloud and Kacey Herrmann. The duo combined for 13 kills - nine for Herrmann and four for McCloud - and never showed a hint of nerves.

"We forget they're even freshmen anymore," said Kelly Herrmann, Kacey's older sister. "They both fit right in. They don't act like freshmen, they don't get scared."

While Stevens never looked even slightly worried about the match in the first two games, one would have thought there was some concern when they fell behind

24-22 in the third game. Not so, according to Kelly Herrmann.

"We felt like we had the momentum the whole time," she said.

The Raiders proved it as they calmly capitalized on three Lincoln hitting errors and a Kelly Herrmann kill to win the match. Elaine Balsley led the Raiders with 20 assists while Nikki Gleich had 13 digs. Sarah Jundt (five), Justine Blade (four) and Amanda Quinn (two) also had kills for the Raiders.

Sarah Kohler played a strong game for the Patriots, knocking down 17 kills and getting two assisted blocks despite having to hit over two Raiders on most of her attempts. Ashley Engel led Lincoln with 34 assists.

Stevens will moves into the semifinal round to face Sioux Falls Roosevelt at 8 p.m. tonight.