MACHIAS- For the past three years, Woodland has advanced to the volleyball state championship final match on the strength of its power game.

The Dragons spiked and killed their way to state runner-up in 1999 and state champs the last two years.

The Purple and White were back in the state final for the fifth straight year Saturday night, but to win, the Dragons would have to switch tactics in mid-match.

The 18-0 Dragons rallied back from an emphatic 25-11 opening-game loss and outlasted a big-hitting Greely of Cumberland Center squad by eschewing their traditional power game and relying on placement and finesse.

The result was a 3-2 match win in which the Dragons came back from 2-1 down at a loud University of Maine-Machias gym.

Woodland pulled out a 25-19 win in the second game with its traditional attack, watched a late rally fall short in a 20-25 loss in the second game, and rallied back for a tense 25-21 game-four victory before carrying that momentum into the deciding fifth game.

The Dragons jumped out to a 3-0 lead and never trailed, built up a 13-8 lead, and then outlasted a late comeback effort to pull out a 15-10 win and the “threepeat.”

“They made us earn this one,” said senior middle blocker Kati Holmes, who had 27 kills in the team’s two matches plus six digs, nine aces and a 22-for-27 serving effort. “It was a matter of just finding open holes and not hitting it where they were.”

Well, it was a bit more complex than that.

“We were having trouble because we were letting them play the ball around the net and they were just killing us on that,” said coach Rich Nutter, whose Dragons stretched a three-year unbeaten streak to 53 matches. “So we changed up so if we didn’t get a good attack, we were going to throw it deep and they could free-ball it over or hit from a further distance back. Plus we started tipping it into their corners, which we didn’t do earlier in the match.”

Another thing the Dragons didn’t do well early was serve, which is normally a big team strength.

“No we didn’t, but we picked it up at the end and that was the difference,” said Nutter.

Outside hitter Phyicia Seavey (six kills, five digs in two matches) and setter Kelsy Snowman, both juniors for Woodland, were nearly automatic behind the service line as they combined to hit 32 of 37 saves in the championship final. They were 78-for-85 (.918) through the semifinal and final matches.

“We got our serves in, finally… That was the biggest thing,” said Seavey. “I think we were really nervous early on. We worked hard and talked a lot in the second game to really kind of pull it together.”

Snowman, who had three aces, also came up big with 19 assists, nine kills and four digs in the five-game match, but it was two kills in particular that will be remembered most.

Snowmanm – who had 18 kills, 39 assists, six digs and 11 aces on the day – faked a set to Seavey and then executed a backhand tip over the Greely front line twice for kills that best exhibited the advantage of finesse over power.

“We had to look for more of the corners, and we really couldn’t control our hits as far as where the empty spots were, so we had to tip them,” Snowman explained.

Greely coach Kelvin Hasch said the match came down to Woodland making the right adjustments and his Rangers not reacting well enough.

“They started dinking the ball almost every time and we just couldn’t get there,” Hasch said. “We got out of our game plan there at the end of the fourth game. We quit hitting the ball and I couldn’t get them back to it. We were just hitting it back and forth and we don’t get anything out of that.”

Other Woodland standouts include juniors Megan Lord (25-28 serving, four aces, 16 digs in both matches) and Amanda Newman (13 kills, 22-26, two aces), senior Niki Lazzaro (20-26, four aces), freshman Michelle Ferry (15 kills, six blocks), and sophomore Megan Woodruff (nine assists).

The 15-2 Rangers were led by seniors Autumn Hawkes (19 kills), Andi Gray (29 assists, seven aces), and Erin Kinney (seven kills), 6-foot junior hitter Abby Marstaller (13 kills, four blocks), sophomore Michelle Robb (10 digs) and freshman Amanda Gray (nine kills, two assists, three aces).

In the semifinals, third-seeded Greely defeated No. 2 Jonesport-Beals 25-23, 21-25, 25-21 and 25-14 while top seed Woodland got by No. 4 Lubec 25-17, 25-10, 19-25 and 25-13.