ROCHESTER — The Blooming Prairie volleyball team started strong, but couldn’t keep it up as it bowed out to top-seeded Faribault Bethlehem Academy by scores of 25-22, 25-16, 25-11 in the Section 1A West Division semifinals Mayo Civic Center Saturday.

No. 4 BP (22-8 overall) hung wight he Cardinals (17-11 overall) throughout the first game and Taylor Hagen had a kills that made it 24-22, but it couldn’t close the deal.

“Mentally we put everything into the first game and it was hard to come off a loss there,” BP setter Madison Worke said. “They had a very good block that was hard to hit around and that wears on you.”

Hagen finished with 12 kills and Worke had four kills, but no other BP hitter was able to find much success attacking.

BP head coach Gina McLaughlin said FBA looked much better than it did in BP’s regular season with them.

“They played much better this time than when we saw them the first time,” she said. “They weren’t this scrappy and they didn’t block this well. They kept blocking us, we’d cover the ball and they’d block us again. That’s really defeating for a front line player.”

The Cardinals also racked up their fair share of aces as they kept BP’s back row off balanced.

“They served the lights out tonight and they really rattled us in serve receive. We knew we’d have to do better than this,” McLaughlin said.

BP stats: Taylor Hagen, 12 kills, 4 blocks, 4 digs, 1 ace serve; Madison Worke, 19 set assists, 4 kills, 5 digs; Nicole Inwards, 23 digs, 1 ace serve; Liz Willert, 11 digs, 1 block, 2 kills, 4 set assists; Sara Noble, 12 digs, 1 block, 2 kills; Lauren Larkoski, 2 kills, 1 block, 11 digs