JAMESTOWN (NewsDakota)- The cruelty of sports is that sometimes it only takes one occurrence of something happening for a season to come to a close.

On Saturday, Carrington felt the sting of just that scenario.

Kadie Kocka and Skye Nielsen combined for 31 kills as the Valley City Hi-Liners advanced to the state tournament with a 3-1 (25-21, 25-18, 12-25, 25-20) win over Carrington in a Class A State Qualifier at Harold Newman Arena in Jamestown, marking the first time all season the Cardinals suffered consecutive defeats.

The first set was antsy for the Cards (31-6) as the Hi-Liners (20-9) took advantage with the serve of Brynn Lueck and the hitting and blocking of Kocka.  In the second set, Nielsen and Kocka each had five kills and Katie Burchill’s blocking took over as Carrington fell behind two sets to none.

The third set flipped, as Kodi Thiel went on a 9-0 run to blow a 10-8 set wide open with the Cardinals taking the set comfortably.  The fourth set was back-and-forth until the middle of the set when a run put Valley City in control at 21-15, but the Cards scored five of the next six before a controversial tip call gave Valley City a 23-20 lead and from there, Carrington did not score again.

The Cardinals reached the 30-win plateau for the first time in six years under first-year head coach Kadyn Mehring, who was named Region 2 Coach of the Year.