After a couple of vagabond weeks, South Medford’s volleyball team was just happy to play in the Rogue Valley Thursday night.

The rollercoaster ride between the Panthers’ trip across town to North Medford until the final point earned in the top-10 Class 6A contest, however, wasn’t any less stressful for a team that has bounced between Arizona, Eugene, Roseburg, Portland and Medford without a home date since Oct. 1.

Eighth-ranked South Medford was able to outlast No. 7-ranked North Medford in front of an energetic crowd in the Black Tornado gym Thursday night, prevailing in a five-set thriller that ran the gamut of emotions in a 28-30, 25-22, 25-23, 14-25, 15-12 showing.

“It was just so nice to be back in the valley,” said Panthers head coach Robin Akpan. “Even though we’re not at home, it was sure nice to only go 15 minutes across town. But North Medford was going to make us earn it tonight, and then we did. We went out and we fought for that so I’m very proud of them for that.”

“It’s been a lot of road work for us,” added the coach, “and at the end of the quarter there’s a lot of things weighing on the girls, so it was just really exciting to see them go out, play hard and be able to have fun and have a good game tonight.”

After being swept by South Medford in the last Southwest Conference rivalry match, North Medford served notice early that Thursday would be a different deal with a seesaw first set won by the Black Tornado, who fought off match point three times before Sophia McQuary supplied a kill and ensuing ace to end the marathon opener.

“After losing there, there was this sense of urgency to at least come in and play well or make a statement,” said North Medford head coach Will Turner. “We came into it with a way better mindset and we were definitely controlling the ball a lot better. There’s those ones where you wish you could have some points back but, overall, I’m super proud of the girls with how they played.”

“I felt like they found a rhythm and they found some momentum and were just riding that wave and fighting through that first set being able to go back-and-forth,” added the coach. “There were moments when we had game points and they had game points and just kudos for the girls for just riding the momentum in their direction.”

South Medford claimed the next two sets in nail-biters that went to the wire, but North Medford appeared to have gained the final momentum with a dominant fourth set and 5-1 start to the fifth and final set.

Behind some strong play from junior Mayen Akpan, however, the Panthers were able to generate an 8-all tie and then in a key stretch, Julia Slaughter was set up for a kill by Julia Hansen and Julia Mitchell provided her own kill to create a 10-8 advantage that South Medford would never relinquish.

The teams mostly traded points thereafter as tension mounted toward the 15th point, with Akpan showing her versatility with a soft find of the floor in the middle of the court to create match point and then Mitchell following with an ace to clinch the comeback.

“Trying to get the engines back going again (after the fourth set) took a lot but I was super impressed with the girls’ tenacity and them being able to kind of push through and grind it out,” said coach Akpan. “It was a really fun match. North Medford pushed us hard and they were ready for us and they’re a great team. We withstood the ball control and we just kept finding the court.”

Turner credited the Panthers for their resolve and ability to register those key points that were up for grabs throughout the fifth set.

“It’s one of those ones where momentum swings are huge,” said the North coach. “When you can take advantage of it and capitalize off of free balls that come over or balls that come back your way, that’s huge. That’s what South did, where they capitalized on those balls and they were able to get a kill off a transition, and hat’s off to them.”

Akpan led the charge for South Medford with 30 kills, 14 digs, three blocks and two aces, while Slaughter had 36 assists, 12 digs, three blocks, five kills and two aces. Hansen finished with 14 digs, six assists, two kills and two aces for the Panthers — who had lost in six of the last eight times they took the floor — and Daija Malcolm had 11 digs, six kills, three blocks and one ace.

“We used Mayen a lot tonight and we do that regularly,” said coach Akpan of her daughter, “but it was really exciting to be able to see many of our other players get up and take big swings and find the floor in great spots and our setters having confidence in finding them.”

“Both Julia Slaughter and Julia Hansen were just taking turns dishing the ball out, making good decisions and helping build our momentum and our energy back with that,” she added. “A lot of props to those two, who really did a great job of running our offense and helping our energy come back on the court.”

Paije Carpenter paced North Medford with 15 kills, 11 digs, two blocks and one ace, while McQuary finished with 20 assists to go with five digs and three blocks and Brinley Curtis collected 25 digs.

The Black Tornado also received key efforts at the net from Sophia Myers during the fourth set to force a winner-take-all finale.

NORTH EUGENE 3, ASHLAND 0: At Ashland, senior Miko Nikolic had five kills and four blocks and sophomore Stella Thompson added five kills and two blocks but Ashland struggled on serve-receive and suffered a 25-17, 25-14, 25-17 setback in Midwestern League play.

Savannah Elster added 16 digs for the Grizzlies (6-8, 5-5 MWL), who were hoping to surpass North Eugene (11-7, 6-3) for third place in the conference.

SPRINGFIELD 3, EAGLE POINT 0: At Eagle Point, Thianna Deng-Gomez came up with 10 kills and Blakely Schauffler added seven kills for Eagle Point in a 25-19, 25-19, 25-19 MWL defeat.

Evy Leonardo doled out 13 assists and Emary Haning had 12 assists for the Eagles (2-15, 0-10 MWL), while Karris Johnson added 14 digs and three aces and Madisyn Dean had 12 digs.

CASCADE CHRISTIAN 3, BROOKINGS-HARBOR 0: At Brookings, Cascade Christian improved to 11-6 overall and 8-1 in Southern Oregon Conference play with a 25-14, 25-21, 25-12 road victory.

ST. MARY’S 3, NORTH VALLEY 1: At Merlin, St. Mary’s received 22 kills, 12 digs and five of the team’s 17 aces from Ada Bernard in a 25-23, 24-26, 25-21, 25-17 road triumph in SOC action.

Lexi Mills added five kills, seven digs and three aces and Lexi Smith had 15 digs for the Crusaders (13-6, 8-1 SOC), while Ella Yeamans collected 30 assists to go with four kills and six aces and Sydney Holdermann had six kills.