LAKEWOOD — As the players on the floor lost a step or a couple inches on their jump, Kinsey Davis just seemed to keep climbing higher.

Davis had five kills and a block in the decisive fifth game as the Burlington-Edison volleyball team edged Archbishop Murphy in the Northwest 2A District tournament semifinals Wednesday, earning a return trip to the state tournament and a rematch with Northwest Conference champion Lynden in the district finals.

“That was an incredible match,” Tigers coach Tawnya Brewer said. “I can’t even explain how different all five games were. Archbishop Murphy is a powerful team with a lot of big hitters.”

At the tournament’s other location, Squalicum High School in Bellingham, Anacortes split matches and will need to beat Sehome at noon Saturday to claim one of the district’s final two state berths.

“I’m excited that the first day went so well. I think they’re ready to play, whoever it is. They’re ready to battle,” Seahawks coach Ashley Abrams said before knowing who her opponent would be.

The Tigers opened with a relatively routine 25-16, 25-17, 25-11 victory over a South Whidbey team that threw up a pretty strong block. That earned the winner-to-state battle with an Archbishop Murphy team that, after a slow start showed how it built a 13-1 mark to take the Cascade Conference’s No. 1 seed.

“They were a little better than we were expecting,” Davis said.

The Tigers trailed by at least three points in each of the first four games. They rallied quickly from an early deficit in the first game and led most of the way.

Archbishop Murphy’s best stretch was undercut when the officials ruled they had been serving out of rotation and took away three points. Instead of leading 21-17 with the Wildcats rallying, Burlington-Edison went ahead 22-14 and cruised to the 25-18 win.

The Wildcats took control gradually in the second game, and would outplay Burlington-Edison for most of the next three games. The Tigers’ closed a five-point deficit to 24-23, but the Wildcats got the final point to take the game.

The third game proved pivotal. Early on, the Tigers were docked for being out of rotation and realized they were stuck with a different lineup the rest of the game. Falling behind by as many as seven at 15-8 and still down four at 20-16, the Tigers scored nine of the final 10 points to win 25-21. Davis had five kills and two blocks in a span of 10 points.

“We showed a lot of heart, and we proved that in Game 3,” Brewer said. “Their ability to play and adjust to a different lineup was huge. I made a mistake and they adjusted.”

The regular lineup didn’t work too well in the fourth game for the Tigers in a 25-13 loss, setting up the fifth game. Archbishop Murphy took a quick 4-2 lead, but Davis recorded kills on three of the next five points to help the Tigers rally. Burlington-Edison pulled away on five straight Wildcat errors, and finished off the 15-8 win on a pair of Davis kills.

Davis had 35 of the Tigers’ 45 kills and added four blocks in the match. She finished the day with 61 kills and five blocks.

“She’s amazing, she truly is,” Brewer said. “To keep swinging that many times is just amazing. That’s a lot of swings.”

Rachel Tingley had 17 kills on the day, including 11 against South Whidbey. Setter Katlyn Mataya had 32 assists against South Whidbey and 42 against Archbishop Murphy.

The road doesn’t get easier, as the Tigers get a rematch with the Lynden team that handed them their only Northwest Conference loss in the past three seasons.

It’s a loss the Tigers are eager to avenge.

“I’m stoked to play them again,” Davis said. “We’re going to come out a lot more focused.”

The Seahawks, on the other hand, got their fill of Lynden on Thursday. After beating Cedarcrest 25-19, 25-15, 19-25, 25-22 in the first match, the Seahawks lost to Lynden 25-13, 25-14, 25-16 in a winner-to-state contest.

“They looked really good coming out against Cedarcrest,” Abrams said. “I was really happy with the way they played. It was an exciting game, good way to start the playoffs. Lynden’s just a really good team. We’re lucky we get to play them.”

Anacortes finished with 56 kills and 10 blocks as a team. Abrams said the totals were fairly evenly spread out over a number of players.”

• Eric Francis can be reached at 360-416-2131 or by e-mail at