Trailing 2-1 in an already emotional best-of-five volleyball match is no time to see your senior standout get the business end of a huge block.

To make matters worse, when Blaine's Sydney Dimke got her kill attempt rejected by Centennial's Leigh Pudwill, the Bengals -- ranked No. 1 earlier this season -- found themselves behind 11-1 in Game 4 of last Saturday's Class 3A, Section 5 championship game.

If that was the bottom, Blaine coach Celeste Gorman knew there was only one way back up.

"It had come from somewhere deeper than our athleticism and our training," Gorman said. "That was heart. That was courage and strength."

Dimke set the tone by scoring the game's next point on a kill. From there, the Bengals never flinched. Not when Centennial later led 22-17 or 23-20 in Game 4, not even as the Cougars pushed them to the brink with a 14-12 lead in Game 5.

Blaine completed the comeback with a 24-22 Game 5 victory, extended a season of great promise into the state tournament. The No. 1 seed Bengals (27-2) take the court at 9 a.m. Thursday at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center against Hutchinson (25-3).

"The second we lost the first two games, I knew we were going to do it," Dimke said. "This team has worked way too hard all year."

Blaine raced to a 22-0 record this fall and earned the No. 1 ranking from coaches after defeating then-top ranked Lakeville North and No. 2 Bloomington Jefferson to win the Apple Valley tournament in September.

Dimke called defeating Lakeville North, the defending state champions, a "turning point."

"After that we knew we could beat anybody," she said.

But not everybody. Andover and Bloomington Jefferson each topped the Bengals in the Eastview tournament in October, dropping them to No. 3. Though they had lost the ranking gained at Apple Valley, the Bengals kept something from that September tournament they found more useful.

"[Coach] Gorman always says, 'The team that smiles the most is the one that's going to win,'" Bengals senior Taylor Dordan said. "A ref at the Apple Valley tournament told us that and we've taken it with us."

Talented and tenacious, the Bengals survived the Centennial match because of an even temperament.

In the title game last season, Blaine took a 2-0 lead and wilted under the heat of Centennial's comeback. Earlier this season, the Bengals fell behind to the Cougars 2-0 before storming back. So no matter how tense things got Saturday, Gorman and the players smiled, whether celebrating points or regrouping after mistakes.

"This is a mental game and if you get in your own head, that's only going to cause problems," sophomore Lydia Dimke said. "So you shake off the mistakes and stay calm."

Calm gave way to elation after freshman Taylor Morgan's block cemented Blaine's first trip to state in five years. Morgan, who dressed for matches earlier this season but didn't always start, embodies the team's growth.

"It's been a maturing process," Gorman said. "The pressure of being No. 1 was really difficult for them at times but I think it never stopped them. It never sunk us. We lost two games but in the words of one of our mothers, 'You can get beat but you'll never be defeated.'"