Seven Lakes wanted another shot at Tompkins.

The teams had already faced off three times this season, with the Falcons winning all three, but the Spartans had come close to beating Tompkins multiple times, only falling by one set in non-district play and in the teams second meeting of the season.

The Spartans got their shot at revenge on Tuesday in the regional quarterfinals and they didn’t let it go to waste, beating the Falcons three sets to one (21-25, 25-22, 25-17, 26-24) despite losing the first set and advancing to the regional tournament for the first time since 2020.

“We really wanted this,” said sophomore libero Megan Chapman. “This meant a lot to us and we knew what we would get out of this win too. So we rallied and fought and we came out fired up for this one.”

Seven Lakes had to overcome a hot start from Tompkins in the matchup, as the Falcons came out strong and didn’t allow the Spartans to get too close in the first set.

But the Spartans turned it up in the second set. Seven Lakes jumped out to a lead and held off a Tompkins run to take the second set in close fashion, before dominating the third set to take a big lead.

“I was so proud of everything we did tonight,” said Seven Lakes head coach Amy Cataline. “We didn’t pass well but we were still able to make smart decisions and do the things with the ball we needed to. Even when we didn’t do things right we were able to come together and make a play and play really good defense.”

The final set was showstopper where both teams threw haymakers at each other until the end. Tompkins led late but the Spartans tied the match at 24 before taking the last two points of the match and securing the win.

“We’ve played this team so many times and in the end I think we just wanted it more,” said senior outside hitter Sameena Burns. “We knew what they wanted to do and we just attacked the gameplan because we wanted this win so bad. We knew what we had to do to win today.”

Seven Lakes advances to the regional semifinals where the Spartans will face off against Deer Park (35-10) at 7 p.m. Friday at Delmar Field House.

“I’m so ready,” Burns said. “ I’ve been there before when I was a freshman, but I didn’t realize how special the regional tournament is and how special state is. I was glad to be there and glad to win. But I was surrounded by a lot of really great role models and now I want to be that role model and that senior leader. I want to help my team get there, I want this for this program so badly.”