BRANFORD — It was the Newberry Panthers with all the energy, passion and momentum, and those qualities combined at the right time in beating Branford 3-1 (25-20, 23-25, 25-10, 13-25) at Branford’s gym on Saturday to advance to the Class 1A state championship.

Branford finished the season 22-6 and Newberry goes to the title game with an 18-12 record.

Branford, powered by a couple Cera McElreath kills, got ahead in the first set 7-0. But the Panthers got on track with a couple kills by Kalen Bennett and the set tightened up at 15-15.

Branford’s Kinleigh Collins made a terrific block and point at the net to make it 19-18 Newberry.

Then Lachelle Sikes made a great back-handed return with her back to the net for a point.

“We decided to make up for our mistakes,” Newberry coach Sherrod Moseley said of the comeback.

A couple missteps by Branford helped Newberry pull away with the opening-set win.

In the second set it looked again like Branford was the better team with Sikes getting heated up with a few kills augmented by an ace by McElreath.

The Bucs went up 18-8 and 23-16 before Newberry started to dominate with kills and returning and keeping just about every ball alive that Branford hit. The Panthers scored eight straight points before Sikes made a nice tip toward the end line that ended the set for Branford with a kill to even the match at 1-1.

The third set wasn’t close like the first two, and the Panthers’ Grace Oelrich, a junior, recorded a vicious kill at the net to put her team up 15-4. Sikes added a couple kills but the Buccaneers never caught fire.

In the most noticeable display of their blocking capabilities, which occurred on one point, the Panthers returned two hard-kill attempts in a row by Sikes and one more from McElreath. But the Bucs’ Collins recorded that point.

Newberry went on to win the set for a 2-1 lead, putting the Bucs’ season on the line.

Branford started out fine and the score was 7-7 before Newberry went on a 10-0 run that began with two points on non-returned serves.

Oelrich began to dominate at the net with a continued point production that didn’t let up until late in the match. She finished with 12 kills and five blocks.

Sophomore libero Abby Pace was also stellar for the Panthers with 24 digs, 13 service points and two aces.

“We had a hard time blocking, of course they are a lot bigger than we are,” Branford coach Mendy Sikes said, adding that Newberry’s rotation helped mount the big comeback in the second set. “Every time Oelrich got to the net, she’s dominating, and if don’t have a block up there she is going to keep scoring.”

Oelrich was modest about her performance at the net.

“It’s a team sport, we all do it together,” she said. “We’ve come together as a team way more than we were at the beginning of the season.”

It seemed that Branford was a little off and Newberry was on.

“We made too many mistakes, and a lot of errors and they’re a great team,” Mendy Sikes said. “They fought hard. I thought it was going to be closer but that’s OK, it was a great season. We’re still regional champs.

“I love these girls and we have a lot of dominating players coming back, and I’ll still have a pretty strong bench.”

Moseley said: “We have a lot of good talent on our team, not taking anything away from Branford. We have been trying to stay solid on defense, and being able to read the hitter.”