The Corning High varsity girls volleyball team gave Chico High something to think about early on in the first round of the Division 2 Northern Section volleyball playoffs between the two teams at Chico High School on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals (11-19) took the opening set 25-20 before the Panthers took over, winning the next three games 25-14, 25-12, 25-18.

Corning head coach Jessica Flores was quite impressed with the effort her Cardinals gave, particularly after their performance two weeks ago, when they did not play well against Las Plumas.

“We spend most of our season not playing division two teams except for Las Plumas,” she said. “So for us to show up and take a set from Chico’s big deal for us.”

It was also a bit of a surprise for the Panthers, whose coach, Richard Thao, said they started slow.

“That definitely surprised us,” he said. “They definitely out-hustled us (in set one). They are a scrappy team.”He said that in the first set, his team just wasn’t awake, but once they got moving, they got hot, and then they really started getting into it and playing better.

In this second set, the Cardinals were within 11-10, thanks to some serving by Corning’s Brystal McClelland.

“From day one to now is a big improvement,” Flores said. “We didn’t think we’d be here at the start of the year.”

However, from that point on, the Panthers were able to outscore Corning 13-4 the rest of the way to claim the second set and knot the match up at one each.

“It’s just how we’ve always started throughout the whole season of starting slow and finishing faster at the end,” Thao said.

Kaycee Konopka served the Panthers out to a 16-10 lead, which included a kill by Natalie Dilg and one ace by Konopka. The Cardinals never got closer than five the rest of that set.

In the third set, the Cardinals also held a lead. A hitting error allowed the Cardinals to tie the game at four before a Riley Henry block gave the Cardinals the lead. After a serving error tied the game again, the Cardinals retook the lead on a Henry kill to make it 6-5, and McClelland’s ace made it 7-5.

Chico High’s Stella Pfeiffer then served the Panthers out to a 17-7 lead that included six aces by the freshman. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, they wouldn’t get any closer than eight points the rest of the set. Pfeiffer was one of three freshmen they brought up for the playoffs, Breanne Armstrong and Anna Gist, both of whom played well. Thao said that Armstrong brought energy into the team.

In the fourth set, the Cardinals had also had a lead before another long run by the Panthers seemed to put the match away. An ace by Angelee Arce made it 5-3. But Chico would soon take the lead back thanks to a serve by Lyla Taylor, who gave Chico a 9-8 lead when she was done.

Konopka would build on that lead when she got a hold of the serve, pushing the lead out to 13-8. It was 19-12, and it looked like the Panthers were on their way to an easy finish to the match, but once again, the scrappy Cardinals fought their way back in it.

They would score seven of the following eight points to pull within 20-18 in a run that included two McClelland aces. After Konopka recorded the kill to give the serve back to Chico, another Panther freshman, Lilia Hurtado, would serve out the match.

Thao said Hurtado was brought in to serve, and if they have confidence in their freshman, they promote to varsity, particularly in their serving

With the win, the Panthers (16-16) move on to the second round next Tuesday night at Pleasant Valley as they take on the co-Eastern Athletic League champion Vikings (24-13). The winner of that match will see the winner of Shasta-Foothill in the Northern Section Championship Final on November 8.