The Bonney Lake High volleyball squad spiked its way to the inside track for second place in the South Puget Sound League 3A race.

The Panthers emerged victorious from a home-court, five-set struggle local rival Enumclaw Thursday to elevate its SPSL 3A mark to 4-1 at the conclusion of the initial round of league encounters.

After dropping the first two sets to the Hornets 25-11 and 25-21, the Panthers developed a refuse-to-lose attitude and won the next three battles 25-19, 25-22 and in sudden death overtime 15-12, due in part to their more aggressive play at the net.

“Enumclaw always gives us a tussle and both squads’ loyal fan base traveling to one another’s gyms always brings out the competitive energy from each side’s players,” said veteran Bonney Lake coach Shirley Baker.

Baker had special praise for middle hitter Erica LeFevers, who finished with a season-high 14 kills.

“You always want to feed your middle hitter sets whenever possible, because that makes things less predictable so that the opposition can’t simply clamp down on your outside hitters all of the time,” said Baker, adding senior setter Chelsea Merkel had done an admirable job of setting up LeFevers.

Taylor Watkins, Bailey Kinkel and Merkel combined for 30 digs.

Bonney Lake notched two match wins on the week, having traveled to Decatur Oct. 5 and winning 25-7, 25-23 and 25-16. Merkel furnished 21 assists while Kinkel had 18 digs.