If the Powell High School volleyball team goes on to win its second straight state championship this year, it will be victories like Thursday night’s that had Panther Country believing the entire way.

Powell put aside the pressures of a rivalry showdown and the crowd noise of battling student sections to earn a convincing 25-15, 25-7, 25-9 win over visiting 3A West Conference foe Cody.

“We just stepped out strong and ready to play,” Breanna Donarski said. “We never had any downfalls.”

The downfalls often seemed to come on the Filly side, as a slew of Cody errors helped PHS (13-1, 2-0) to victory in set one. Donarski then helped the Panthers to a surge to begin game two. With the 5-foot-4 junior at the line, the Panthers virtually ended the set early with an 8-0 charge.

Five errors by the Fillies contributed to Powell’s fast start, and Kalina Smith and Makaila Moore added kills to go with a block from Anissa Warner. An error by the hosts briefly ended the onslaught, but the Panthers quickly reeled off an 8-2 run to stay in control.

Donarski’s ace ended the second set.

“We always know that we need to start out ready to play from the beginning, and sometimes we have trouble with that ... but we started strong and kept going,” Donarski added.

In the final set, it was Moore and Smith who enjoyed lengthy stays at the service line and helped PHS sustain runs that ultimately sealed Cody’s fate.

After Smith’s block gave the Panthers a 4-1 advantage, Moore stepped to the line for eight straight PHS points. Smith added three kills during the move that saw her team grab a 12-1 cushion. Later in the game, Smith put together a string of six points from the line, finishing with an ace to push the lead to 20-4.

Moore was happy to see her team lock an opponent down and deny a comeback, which has been a small issue for the Panthers this fall.

“It was super important to not let them rally, and that’s something we’ve been working on,” Moore said. “We had some really intense practice this week in order to get better, and I think that’s why we were able to come out and play the way we did.”

Senior Megan Wagner was said to be frustrated early on in the matchup, expressing disappointment that she was not contributing at the level she believed she could. In the final set of the matchup, Wagner made her presence felt in a big way. She added two blocks and two kills to go with a service ace to account for five of the Panthers’ final six points.

“I feel like I’m usually a big block, and that I didn’t have as many blocks as I should have tonight,” Wagner said. “There at the end I think I finally figured out what I needed to do, and hopefully I’ll be able to continue that into our next game and every game after tonight.”

Wagner led her team with four aces, and Donarski had three. Smith paced the Panthers with 10 kills. Jenni Ebersberger had 20 digs and Donarski chipped in 17.

Making PHS’ shutout of Cody slightly more impressive was its ability to eliminate any effects of a rowdy fan base. From beginning to end, the fans making up both team’s student bodies exchanged verbal taunts both at each other, and at the teams on the court. Wagner said that “staying in our arena” allowed the Panthers to remain focused on the task at hand.

“We knew that with Cody, it was going to be wild,” she said. “And it was. With their student section here, it was crazy ... it was crazy ... but that makes the victory even better.”

PHS coach Cindi Smith was proud of what she called a “total team effort,” and said that staying focused was a major key to victory.

“We always talk about staying in your arena, and this was a great opportunity for us, because there are going to be more matches where there will be lots of people, and it’s going to be loud,” coach Smith said. “So we really just need to stay focused and within what we call our arena and avoid letting any outside sources contribute to what we do.”