BUCKSPORT – Sam McGuire stepped behind the service line on Thursday with the modest goals players have when their team is well on the way to a demoralizing loss.

She just wanted to put the ball in play.

Part of the reason: She and the Bucksport Golden Bucks had already dropped the first two games of a best-of-five state quarterfinal volleyball match to Narraguagus.

The rest of the reason: They’d started out Game 3 in a rut, and trailed 10-1. The season, apparently, was limping to a close, in front of a sizeable home crowd at Ralph Jewett Gymnasium.

“It was just relax and get the ball over,” McGuire said.

Thirteen straight times, McGuire relaxed and got the ball over. Thirteen straight times, the Golden Bucks scored, en route to a 16-14 win.

“I was just so shocked,” McGuire said. “It just kept going, one after the other. It was so awesome.”

As far as the Bucks were concerned, so was the final outcome. They also overcame 8-4 and 5-0 deficits to win the final two games and advance to Saturday’s state final four in Machias. The final score: 10-15, 13-15, 16-14, 15-10, 15-10.

Bucksport improves to 12-3, while the No. 6 Knights end up 8-8.

Bucksport coach Mike Carter, who started the program as a club team three years ago, said that even though his team was struggling, he had faith in McGuire.

“I was pretty comfortable with Sam serving,” Carter said. “Certainly nobody likes to be down 10-1. But Samantha’s had a strong overhand serve all season.”

Narraguagus coach Todd Emerson said that despite taking early leads in the final two games, his team couldn’t capitalize.

“We won the first two games, and you should really win the match when you do that,” Emerson said. “But the momentum swung, and we could never get it swung back.”

The Golden Bucks had a lot to do with that, as they cut down on mistakes that had cost them early in the match, especially from the service line.

Bucksport put only 76.6 percent of its serves into play over the first two games, but forced Narraguagus to field 92.7 percent of its serves over the final three games.

And it’s not as if the Bucks began serving soft: In all, 30 of the 102 serves Bucksport unleashed in the match were unreturnable.

“We knew we had to get the serves over the net,” said Bucksport senior Jessie Carter, Mike’s daughter. “That was the most important thing. And after that, it was just doing what we know how to do.”

The Golden Bucks were led at the net by Carter (10 kills, two digs, three blocks) and Jaime Carmichael (two kills, four blocks). Kelly White handed out five assists and put 20 of her 21 serves in play.

The Knights were led by Allison Sawyer, who keyed the first-game victory by serving for eight straight points. Sawyer also added 10 kills.

Annie Woodsum added nine kills and 19 service points and Amanda Barbee and Brook Courchaine had 10 assists apiece.

Mike Carter was impressed by the effort of his team.

“They just refuse to lay down. They just refuse to give up. And that’s a tribute to their individual desire,” he said.