Gold Beach libero Lindsey McDonald passes the ball to her team’s setter during Wednesday’s Sunset Conference playoff match at Coquille. World Photo by Madeline Steege.

COQUILLE — Gold Beach had a big motivation heading into its Sunset Conference volleyball playoff match with Coquille Wednesday night.

“We didn’t want to go to Eastern Oregon,” said middle blocker Molly Hockema.

The Panthers beat the Red Devils in four games, 25-18, 25-22, 21-25, 25-12 to secure a home match in the Class 3A playoffs against Creswell.

Coquille is off to Vale to face the Vikings on Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m. MST.

Hockema knows all about a trip to the town near the Idaho border. She went there with Gold Beach’s basketball team in the playoffs two years ago.

The senior leader had a big role in keeping the Panthers from making another trip east, finishing the night with 18 kills, two aces, three digs and eight blocks. Her offensive numbers included a critical stretch of four straight kills in the deciding fourth game that stretched Gold Beach’s lead from 13-9 to 17-9. The Red Devils weren’t able to respond to the spurt and Gold Beach soon was celebrating its second big win in a row. The Panthers, who finished third in the regular season, beat Myrtle Point on Tuesday to clinch a playoff spot and earn a shot at the Red Devils for the league’s No. 2 seed.

While Hockema pounded the ball at the Red Devils all evening, teammate Katherine Zuber took advantage of holes in Coquille’s defense for several tips that fell for Gold Beach kills. Zuber finished with nine kills, five digs and five blocks, along with two aces, and the Red Devils appeared out of place for several of her soft hits.

“Gold Beach played better than we did,” said Coquille coach Troy Cooper. “We really struggled in a lot of areas we usually don’t.”

That included covering the tips and also passing in both serve-receive and on free balls.

That area was the biggest difference all night. Coquille setters Chelsy Forbes and Kaitlyn Altenbach often had to chase passes and struggled to get good sets on those balls, while Gold Beach setter Rendall MacLaurie had the benefit of solid passing by her defenders.

“Our coach always says, ‘It starts with a good pass,’” said Gold Beach libero Lindsey McDonald. “Everyone was passing good tonight.”

McDonald had a huge night on defense, often hitting the floor to dig up Coquille kill attempts and making good passes to MacLaurie throughout the match. She had 20 digs during the win and earned the praise of Hockema.

“She is the back row,” Hockema said, though McDonald quickly deflected that compliment toward the entire team.

“Our team just played really well tonight,” she said.

That started after a tough final week of the regular season that included a loss to Reedsport that ultimately knocked the Panthers down to third place.

“We broke down to the basics in practice,” said Gold Beach coach Colleen Ellis. “We spent a lot of time on passing and picking up balls.”

Hockema had four kills in a five-point stretch early in the first game as teammate Sydney Hadley ran off seven straight service points to push the Panthers to a 9-2 lead. Gold Beach led comfortably the rest of the game.

Coquille bounced back in the second game to take an early 10-4 lead as Allison Cook had three kills and a stuff block and then served up five straight points. But the Red Devils couldn’t hold the lead and Gold Beach scored the last four points to take a two-game advantage.

The Red Devils scored the first three points of the third game and led by as much as 14-7 before Gold Beach again rallied. The Panthers ultimately took an 18-17 lead on an ace by Zuber, but Coquille bounced right back with a kill by Cook and an ace by Stephanie Jones. The teams then traded points until Coquille’s Nikki Hall had an ace and Courtney Davis ended the game with a kill through two Gold Beach blockers.

But the Red Devils couldn’t maintain the momentum in the final game and Gold Beach pulled away for the easy win.

The Panthers were confident heading into the match because they swept the season series with Coquille — they were the only team other than Cascade Christian to beat the Red Devils in league play.

“We knew their weaknesses,” said McDonald.

The result is a home match for Gold Beach and a long road trip for Coquille.

“It’s going to be tough,” Cooper said. “We only have a couple days to prepare. We’ll cover the basics.”

Jones finished the match with 11 kills for Coquille, while Hall had 10 kills and three aces. Cook had seven kills and two aces, while Forbes had 24 assists and libero Lindsey Cooper had 34 digs.

MacLaurie had 36 assists for the Panthers, while Melissa Smith had six kills.

Notes: Vale was ranked eighth, Creswell ninth and Gold Beach 10th in the latest Class 3A coaches poll. Burns is ranked No. 1, with Sunset Conference champion Cascade Christian No. 4. ... Admission for Saturday’s matches is $6 for adults and $4 for students. ... The winners of Saturday’s eight playoff matches will make up the field for the Class 3A state tournament, scheduled for Nov. 7-8 at Lane CommunityCollege in Eugene. As with recent years, the Class 4Atournament also will be Friday and Saturday at Lane. The Class 5A and 6A tournaments will be held the same two days at Liberty High School in Hillsboro, while the Class 1A and 2A tournaments will be held at Pacific University in Forest Grove.