After smashing a kill in the fifth set and heading to the service line Wednesday, No. 5 Sierra’s Thinh Huynh got the hometown crowd stomping its feet with a three-point service run behind a pair of jump-serve aces to get to match point and set up the winning kill by Ole Schmidt in a 25-19, 32-34, 25-12, 25-12 Sac-Joaquin Section Division III boys volleyball win over 12th-seeded Rio Linda.

“I told my teammate we needed a kill to get our energy up,” Huynh said. “I don’t usually serve, and I told my friend if we are up, I want to do a jump serve. I have been practicing that for a week, and I got real confident with it.

“The energy was really high and my teammates really helped me.”

Huynh finished with 11 kills and those two aces.

Sierra coach Danielle Deerinck lets the team sort out the service rotation.

“He can serve,” Deerinck said of Huynh. “We normally have a defensive specialist serve for him and play in the back row to rest him for the front row. I normally let the players talk out who is on for the serve, and they decided to let him serve on the last one. He has been practicing on his top spin, and he did a really great job.

“I was really proud of our offense today. Everyone was involved, and our middles were such a huge factor that helped us on the block. We did a job in the back row to set ourselves up to be able to swing and we had some really great kills.”

Schmidt was a force in the net with 21 kills along with five digs.

“Tonight was great,” Schmidt said. “We played great as a team. Especially our middle connection between the setter and middle blockers.

“We got a little lazy in the second set but overall it was a great team win.”

The second set was a marathon with nine ties and each team had multiple chances to win with the Knights (15-9) finally pulling it out.

Ayden Bryant was tough in both the front and back row for the Timberwolves (18-8) with 14 kills and five digs.

“There was a lot of energy in this game, especially because it is playoffs,” Bryant said. “I felt like I really needed to improve and do a lot more than I usually do.”

Sierra’s Toan Do dished out 45 assists along with six digs and six kills. Manola Asuncion added 21 digs with three aces and Kalel Lagrimas chipped in five aces and five digs.

The Timberwolves take to the road Friday night to face No. 4 Christian Brothers of Sacramento at 6.