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Peyton Neff dove forward, her body parallel to the ground, and reached out a hand at the last second. It looked as if Hastings would pick up a point on a kill that nearly fell out of reach.

Somehow, Neff’s hand got under the ball and sent it flying up. Her job wasn’t done though, as she instantly picked herself up, got in position and set the ball to Kenzie Polk waiting on the left side, who spiked the ball between two Hastings players.

“We really were trying to anticipate more tips over the block,” North Platte coach Clancy Hammond said. “Peyton making that diving save, that was something that we worked on this week ... just anticipating those tips.”

Plays like that — mixed with a dominant showing at the net — helped the North Platte Bulldogs defeat the Hastings Tigers 25-18, 25-18, 25-18 on Thursday.

“I’m really impressed by how they came out and played tonight,” Hammond said. “Something that we worked on in practice all week was sealing off the net with our block, and that was something they really did well tonight.”

Neff and libero Gracie Haneborg were all over the court defensively. They were routinely fighting for digs all night and helping the Bulldogs go on the attack.

“Gracie Haneborg is always all over the court,” Hammond said. “She doesn’t want to let anything drop.”

Carly Purdy led the Bulldogs with seven kills, followed by Mckenna Little and Emily Hansen with six kills apiece. Skyler Sudbeck collected two aces as well.

A lot of North Platte’s momentum was earned at the net. Kylie Harvey, Neff, Polk and Little — and later Purdy and Sedina Hayes — came away with huge blocks that kept the Bulldogs on top, including two from Polk and Neff at the end of the first set.

“Any of those points could have changed the outcome of the game,” Hammond said. “A block gives your team so much more energy than any other point will. That was something we’ve really been working on.

In the first set, back-to-back blocks from Neff and Little then Little and Harvey helped North Platte on 5-0 run to put the score at 12-8. Even after the Tigers started to mount a comeback, it was a solo block from Neff that put her team up by four and ended the threat.

Kills by Brooklyn Douglass and Polk, followed by a timely ace from Sudbeck gave North Platte the first set.

Both teams traded points in the second set until it was tied at 15-15. A team block put the Bulldogs ahead by two. Three consecutive kills, two from Little and one from Purdy, capped off a 10-3 run to take the second set.

Hastings made it close in the third set, trailing North Platte 18-17, but the Bulldogs went on a 7-1 run to close out the game, with Purdy and Polk closing it out with kills.

“I’m just really proud of them,” Hammond said. “The work that they put in this week, and then they made it work tonight...they played more as a team tonight. Our energy was good from start to finish.”