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LINCOLN — During the week of practice leading up to the state volleyball tournament, Bellevue East coach Robyn Jensen had her team focus on learning to play from behind.

That practice would come in handy during its opening Class A match with Omaha Burke.

After dropping the first two sets, the Chieftains rallied for a 21-25, 19-25, 27-25, 25-16, 15-11 victory over the Bulldogs on Thursday afternoon at Pershing Center.

The win earned the fourth-ranked Chieftains (27-7) a spot in today's 9:30 a.m. semifinals while No. 6 Burke saw its season end at 27-10.

“All week long we worked on how we would handle situations on playing from behind,” Jensen said. “We wanted them to keep working hard even if they were behind.

“This is the first match like this for a lot of these girls and we came in uptight.”

The Bulldogs, in search of their first-ever state tournament victory, cruised through the first two sets and led 22-19 in the third. On two occasions, they were two points away from ending the match.

With the set tied at 25, East got back-to-back kills from Taylor Burbage and Sarah Kemp to take the set and steal the momentum.

“We all worked too hard to let this get away,” Kemp said. “We really pulled together and after we won the third game, we felt like the match was ours.”

East carried that momentum into a convincing victory in the fourth set, but the Bulldogs stole it back by building an 8-5 cushion in the deciding frame.

That lead was quickly erased behind the serving of Kemp as she reeled off four straight points, culminated by an ace that put the Chieftains ahead 9-8.

“At that point, if I was going to miss a serve, it was going to be long,” Kemp said. “I wasn't going to lollipop one in there.”

After Burke briefly tied the set, East scored the next two points and never trailed again. Kemp ended the comeback with her 28th kill of the match.

“I told Sarah after the third game that she's been waiting her whole life for a moment like this,” Jensen said.

Kemp had plenty of support as Janaya Fox added 21 kills and Mallory Babic 12. Emily Cook finished with 52 set assists.

It was a tough ending to a memorable season for coach John Svehla and his Bulldogs. They dominated the first two sets and were poised to become the first Omaha Public Schools program to win a match at state.

“You can be on top of the world one minute and then struggling the next,” Svehla said. “When you lose that momentum, it's tough to get it back.

“You can't run the clock out, but you wish you could. You have to keep playing to the end.”

The Bulldogs got 19 and 15 kills, respectively, from their middle-hitter tandem of Dani Bird and Ali Jansen.

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