Gust delivered an emotional burst that sparked the Eagles to a pivotal comeback over Edgerton in the former — and that allowed her to punctuate the effort with a finishing kill in the fifth set that gave the Eagles a 19-25, 25-22, 16-25, 25-18, 15-10, WIAA Division 2 sectional semifinal win at River Valley High School.

"I was getting very angry," Gust said after the Eagles dropped two of the first three sets. "... A fire gets lit inside me when I get angry, and no one is going to touch the ball on the other side."

Edgerton sure couldn’t on Gust’s final kill, which came on an assist from Lauren Halweg — one of her school record and match-best 60 — and landed squarely in the middle of its defense.

"It was the perfect move to put the ball in her hands," Sauk Prairie coach Eleanor Engelby said. "She knows when the other team is down — she knows when they’re not ready — and she knows when to pound it to the floor."

Edgerton’s standout middle Bethany Wedvick and Sauk Prairie’s Alison Halweg both did so early in game five.

Wedvick, who notched a match-high 29 kills, and Halweg, who led the Eagles with 27, combined for nine of the first 11 points during an opening stretch that left the Eagles with a 6-5 lead.

Then, Halweg and Lacey Puls combined for a block-point and Puls notched two of her 19 kills in the match to highlight a 5-2, Eagles’ run that proved to be the difference.

But it might not have gotten to that point if not for Gust’s burst in game four. She got a pair of kills and helped on three blocks that resulted in points —including one that tied the score at 14 — to highlight a 13-1 Eagles’ run that erased a 13-8 deficit and made it 21-14.

"She came to the bench, and I said, ‘We need some energy, we need some fire,’" Engelby said. "And she did. I mean, she went out there, she got them fired up and you could just tell on everyone’s face no one was going to give up in this match."

It was a run that started with a kill from Puls, who also got kills for the final two points to make it pay off.

And it was one the Eagles needed to regain the momentum they lost after losing the third set.

In that set, Edgerton’s Bethany and Katie Wedvick, who had 27 kills, combined for six points during a 9-5 run midway through it to create the necessary separation.

"We were trying to place ourselves in the path of the hit, instead of finding our blocks and getting where we needed to go," Engelby said of what keyed that win, as well as the first-set win, for the Crimson Tide.

In the second set, the two teams battled to 12 ties and traded the lead seven times — the final time when Lauren Halweg notched her only ace of the match with a serve that skipped off the net and made it 22-21 —before Alison Halweg picked up two of the final three points, including the final one, with kills.

Despite losing, Edgerton coach Jason Knott left impressed with both teams’ performance.

"It was a phenomenal volleyball match. ... This is the type of volleyball match you wish there didn’t have to be a loser, because both teams deserved it," he said. "(Sauk Prairie) made the plays at the end. ... They definitely earned it."

They did, and it left Gust struggling to come to grips with the excitement.

"I don’t even know how to describe it," she said. "You can’t just watch it, you have to experience it to feel that."

Edgerton 25 22 25 18 10 — 2

Sauk Prairie 19 25 16 25 15 — 3

EDGERTON: (leaders): Kills — B. Wedvick 29, K. Wedvick 27. Blocks — Snell 6, B. Wedvick 4. Digs — Langer 26, Wileman 19. Aces — Schmidt, Langer 1. Assists — Schmidt 47.

SAUK PRAIRIE: Kills — Alison Halweg 27, Lacey Puls 19, Brittany Hahn 11, Alex Gust 11. Blocks — Gust, Puls 1.5, A. Halweg, L Halweg 1. Digs — Hahn 47, Aimee Thrune 32, A. Halweg 29, Brooke Larson 29, Puls 23, L. Halweg 20. Aces — Caroline Gust 4, L. Halweg 1. Assists — L. Halweg 60.