The Wharton High volleyball team had three equally important reasons to want to beat Bloomingdale on Tuesday.
To start, the Bulls ended Wharton's 2010 season in the district tournament semifinals.
Secondly, with Bloomingdale defeating five-time defending state champion Plant last week, Wharton wanted to prove it was capable of winning against a top team.
Finally, with a win, Wharton would force a three-way tie for first place in Class 8A-District 7.
The Wildcats (15-3) used all three motivating factors in a 23-25, 25-21, 25-16, 25-20 victory.
Wharton led every set of the night, but in the fourth, Bloomingdale (10-6) took a 13-11 lead and appeared on its way to forcing a fifth set. Wharton and junior Caci Andreychuk wouldn't let that happen.
"I told them, 'This is only two games and it takes three to win,' " Wharton coach Eric Barber said. "We knew we had to get by Bloomingdale. They kicked us out of it last year."
"It was really important in the fourth game," said Andreychuk, who finished with 17 kills and 11 digs. "We usually slack off but we really wanted to win."
Senior middle hitter Stephany Brown added 13 kills to go along with eight total blocks, five of which were solo.
Freshman Karissa Rhodes led Bloomingdale with nine kills.
"Wharton did a good job of taking us out of our system," Bloomingdale coach Margeaux Sinibaldi said.
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