Alex Eisen/MDN Lewis & Clark junior Ava Rogers (16) bumps the ball in a District 12 first round tournament match Thursday against Surrey in Berthold.

BERTHOLD — A slow start turned into a rapid finish for the No. 3-seeded Lewis & Clark volleyball team Thursday night, as they brushed past No. 6 Surrey in straight sets (25-20, 25-15, 25-14) in the first round of the District 12 tournament being held on the Bombers home court.

“We knew we had to dig deep coming into this match tonight as a team,” L&C coach Brooke Storro said. “We were a little nervous coming into tonight and made some errors early in the game. Our own mistakes. But, once we were able to settle in, take a few deep breaths and start playing, we were able to start earning points.”

The Mustangs were off and running in the opening set with an ace by Lauren Anderson for the first point and built an early 6-1 advantage. It didn’t last long.

The Bombers (23-12) chipped away until they had tied the score at 14-14 on back-to-back kills from Toni Hamilton and Corina Pabian. Hamilton finished with a match-high 15 kills.

Another kill by Hamilton forced the Mustangs (11-14) into a timeout trailing 20-17. The Bombers closed out the set 25-20 on a put down from Ava Rogers, who finished with 11 kills.

“I think the jitters probably got to us because we got excited that the score was in our favor for a majority of that first game,” Surrey coach Ashley Moore said. “If we could have maintained our focus, then I think we would have at least put up better scores. Especially in the second and third sets, and then in the fourth and fifth sets had we continued.”

Abigail Storkson led the Mustangs with five kills, Hunter Fuchs had four blocks and Jayden Okeson picked up 15 digs.

An ace by Rogers had the Bombers take a six-point lead in the middle of set two, 13-7. A pair of consecutive kills by Hamilton pushed the score to 17-12 and a Grace Simons kill finished off an 8-3 run for the Bombers to win the second set 25-15.

“Toni Hamilton played a great game tonight,” Storro said. “She was effective in the middle for us and hit well. I think our attack was the biggest key to our game, but I think that also came because of our passing in the back row to our setter, which was nice. We were able to set to all of our hitters.”

Bombers setter Laura Vangsness finished with a match-high 36 assists.

Lewis and Clark jumped out to a 11-3 lead in the third set and never looked back. By the time the Mustangs reached 11 points themselves, the Bombers were closing in on match point at 22-11.

L&C finished the match off at 25-14 after a block out of bounds.

The Bombers advances to play No. 2-seeded Des Lacs-Burlington in the semifinals today and Surrey falls to the other side of the bracket to play in a loser-out game against No. 7-seeded Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood.

Alex Eisen covers Minot High School, Minot State athletics and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.