AUBURN — Ninth-seeded Deering come out on top in the Class A preliminary-round volleyball game by winning three of the four sets against eighth-seeded Edward Little on Thursday at Park Avenue Elementary School.

Deering (6-9) coach Nika Francois said the prelim win felt “fantastic,” and said she was proud of both teams in the hard-fought battle.

“Our offense is the strongest thing that we have right now,” Francois said. “This is a rebuilding year for me, last year I lost basically my entire team — 12 seniors — so we’ve rebuilt this team from the ground up.”

The Rams will face top seed Biddeford (13-1) on Saturday.

Thursday’s prelim was the Red Eddies’ (10-5) first playoff appearance in program history. Edward Little’s first season as a varsity team was last year, and the team improved this season from zero to 10 wins.

Deering won the first set 25-18. Edward Little bounced back and won the second set 25-17, but the Rams took the third set, 25-23, and the fourth, 25-17.

The Red Eddies started the fourth set on a streak, but Deering pulled away after tying 14-14.

Edward Little battled in the second set, never letting the Rams gain more than a three-point advantage. The Red Eddies took a 16-14 lead and then started to pull away with five consecutive points.

Edward Little’s lone senior, Kiara Bushman, said the team had a great year and improved tremendously, so to even make it to the playoffs was more than enough in her final season on the court. She said the second set’s outcome was business as usual for the Red Eddies this season.

“It’s just what we’ve been doing all season, trusting each other, covering the ball, calling it, going for every ball, just like fighting hard and being there when we need each other,” Bushman said.

After Edward Little tied the match at 1-1, Francois said she reminded the Rams to take the game one set at a time.

“What I tell them is to move on, we cannot get stuck on what happened the point before or the set before,” Francois said. “You’ve got to move on, because a new set is a new set, and you can win that but you need to push through. That’s exactly what they did.”

In the third set, Deering was down until evening the score at 22-22, just potentially three points shy of winning or losing the set.

“We were down in the third or second set, down 16-9, and we just came back with Mackenzie Smith,” Deering senior Shea Fenton said. “She just comes in and serves the ball all the time; that happened to us yesterday, too, at the Portland game. We just came back, and our energy made us win that set.”

Fenton said on-court energy fueled the Rams to maintain composure through the four sets, and has fostered a deep trust between teammates.

“Any girl our coach puts in there, we trust her,” Fenton said. “We just have so much trust for each other on the court.”

Outside hitters Caroline Chong and Blake Gayle were particularly strong in Thursday’s game, Francois said, “stepping it up” and saving multiple balls from the out of bounds lines. She also noted Fenton’s leadership as a setter.

“Shea is, I like to call her my quarterback of my team,” Francois said.

Fenton said she’s been more of a leader in her senior season, after feeling like she took a backseat the past few seasons.

“Last year I feel like I was too much of a follower,” Fenton said. “This year, I’ve really taken on a leadership role, and I’m just so excited to play again with my girls.”

Red Eddies coach Kristi Gordon said she was proud of her team for rallying behind one another, after a day full of nervous energy ahead of the program’s first playoff appearance.

“Sarah (Ebersole)’s aces, of course, those always give us a boost, and then those girls just really work together in some of those rotations,” Gordon said. “Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get it together for other ones.”

Bushman said despite the prelim loss, this season was her favorite as a Red Eddies volleyball player.

“This year was a great year, we’ve had a lot of bad years in the past, and this year, we all came together, worked together, and I’m just proud of us this year,” Bushman said.