The Bishop Guertin girls volleyball players console each other after thier stunning defeat at the hands of Keene in the Divison I preliminary round Thursday night at the Colligadome. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The look on Bishop Guertin High School girls volleyball coach Kyle Clement’s face wasn’t really one of disappointment.

It was simply pure shock.

That’s because the way Thursday night’s Division I prelim with visiting Keene started with a blowout first set win, there was no way he thought his Cardinals would lose the next three sets for a 3-1 season-ending defeat — let alone give up 15 straight points in the last set after it was 10-all for the 25-10 clincher.

“That wasn’t how we played all year,” said Clement, whose No. 8 Cards end at 12-7 and bid farewell to eight seniors. “I think a lot of it was just the emotion,

“We have a lot of seniors on our team who realized it was probably going to be their last game.”

But you would have never thought that after Guertin won the first set handily 25-13. Keene bounced back to win the second set 25-20, then outlasted BG in the third, 28-26.

But the fourth set was the stunner. And after all, this was a Keene program making its first postseason appearance in 11 years.

Miranda Selema was huge for the Blackbirds with two aces, 11 kills and eight digs, but Phoebe Rigg, another senior was dominant at the net with nine kills and eight blocks. She got the resounding winning kill in the third set and the last two points of the second set.

“We just decided we needed it switch it up, we needed to so something better and we needed to have some better energy,” Rigg said. “We really wanted to win this. It’s been too long.”

“This is our first time in the post season,” Keene coach Gabby Arig said. “Coming in, we didn’t have the experience, there were a lot of nervous jitters. Against a good team that fights so hard in the first set, I knew we’d be either at our best or our worst.”

It was the latter, as Guertin cruised in set one, leading all the way and controlling the match at the net.

“So I wanted to let them play it out, have them get used to the venue, get used to what we needed to do and come out and play strong in the second,” Arig said. “They really worked hard, every single play.”

Guertin couldn’t get as much as a two point lead the rest of the way. Keene led 16-8 in the second, and the closest BG could get was three points. The Cards fought back from being down 23-20 to extend the third set, but never reached a set point.

And in the fourth, Clement and the Cards watched in horror as Keene’s Summer Smith served out the match, 15 points worth.

Guertin senior Caroline Sullivan had 10 kills, five assists and four digs, while Julia Foster had 19 assists and four digs, while Larissa Comolli had six kills, one ace and two blocks.

“I think we just got to comfortable,” Clement said. “We started playing their level of game, and not our style. When we control the ball, and can run our offense, we do a good job. We kind of got caught up in rallies and not running the offense we’re used to running.”

Keene’s reward? A trip to unbeaten, defending Division I champion Bedford in the quarterfinals Saturday night.

That’s where the Cards thought they would be.

“We were mentally tough all year,” Clement said. “We’ve had tons of injuries, tons of absences, eventually (the toughness) kind of runs out. It did it at a bad spot.”