CEDAR RAPIDS - As the Tripoli volleyball team waited to make its 2008 state tournament debut, the girls huddled together in a corner of the U.S. Cellular Center for routine of chants, hacky sack and preliminary warm-ups.

Then they waited and waited and waited.

Springville's 24-22 fifth set win over Coon Rapids-Bayard took almost two hours to complete, delaying the Panthers' battle with Kingsley-Pierson nearly an hour from its scheduled start time.

Tripoli didn't take long to get its court caught up, however, as it recovered from a slow start and stormed past Kingsley-Pierson 25-17, 25-13, 25-16 in 54 minutes.

With the win Tripoli will play Springville at 7:15 p.m. tonight for a chance to make its ninth finals appearance in 10 trips to state.

While the Panthers' entered the state tournament unranked, they didn't fool anyone during Thursday's convincing victory.

"I looked at the schedule that they played and its got to be one of the toughest schedules that any 1A team would play," Kingsley-Pierson head coach Jon Mouw said. "Even though their (28-11) record may not reflect their outstanding level of play, people know who they are and they're without a doubt one of the best 1A teams in the state."

Since suffering three consecutive losses to 3A schools, Tripoli's its last six matches including its victory over 1A's No. 1 ranked Wapsie Valley in the regional semifinals.

"We went through some struggles in the beginning, but it just shows that we kept working together and pushed through all that," junior outside hitter Kalie Kirchhoff said. "We're going to come out strong every game and it's going to be a fight."

In a match that saw both teams struggle with a total of 19 errors from the service line, an errant serve by Kirchhoff gave Kingsley-Pierson its last lead at 9-8 in the first set. Kirchhoff later redeemed herself with two aces as a part of a five-point service run putting set one out of reach at 22-15.

Tripoli freshman middle Megan Gilbert made her presence know from there as she excelled in her state tournament debut. Gilbert teamed up with Micah Wedemeier for three blocks and added a solo block of her own during a 9-2 run to open the second set. Gilbert was in on seven blocks for the match and Kingsley-Pierson never threatened down the stretch as it was held to a -.182 hitting efficiency over the final two sets.

"It was fun," Gilbert said with a laugh after tying for a team-high nine kills on .500 hitting. "We just had to read their setter and push hard on our blocks and we just got after it."

Kirchhoff also had nine kills, while Wedemeier added seven for Tripoli's balanced attack.

Kingsley-Pierson's 6-1 standout Briana Schaeuble single-handily led her team's attack with 13 kills. The rest of her team combined for five kills on 50 attempts.

While the Panthers rolled through their first match, coach Will Bauman realizes there's plenty of work left to be done if his team is going to continue its run through state.

"I think we were a little off," he said. "I think the environment is going to throw a lot of teams off. It's a pretty big open area, but we got the job done."

Contact sports writer Nick Petaros at (319) 291-1428 or nick.petaros@lee.net.