NORTHBOROUGH - Kate Harper knows she gets down on herself too much on the volleyball court.

"I think I'm the worst on the team," the Frontier Regional volleyball junior hitter said. "When I get down, it's really hard to get back up."

Harper had some tough moments midway through Saturday's state Division 3 tournament championship match, allowing one hitting error to turn into two, then three.

But she turned things around in time to come up big in the deciding fifth game of the Red Hawks' 3-2 win over Case at Algonquin Regional.

"The nerves definitely got to me at one point," said Harper, whose team won 23-25, 25-18, 17-25, 26-24, 15-11. "That may have been part of it."

Harper settled down, however, with strong play late in the fourth game as Frontier stayed alive with a 26-24 win and then had two big kills in key moments in the fifth and final game.

Senior Marie Wheeler said she was impressed to see Harper recover.

"She played so well after that" early trouble, Wheeler said. "Everyone has rocky spots in games. It just happened that this was her game, and she pulled it off at the end so well. She couldn't have done any better."

With Case leading 8-7 in the game to 15, Harper dropped a big kill to even the score and stop a 6-1 run by the Cardinals. The teams then traded points before Harper hit another winner, this time with a tip, and then scored on a service point to take a 13-10 lead en route to closing things out 15-11.

"Kate started out all right and then started struggling early in the match," coach Sean MacDonald said. "She came up for us big. Some of it wasn't pretty, but it got the job done. Kate has played so well for us this year. She's been one of our most improved players. I'm very proud of the way she mentally came back from that."

Harper finished the game with five kills.

"It's really hard when you get down, but when you get back up it's almost like you can accomplish anything," she said.

SENIORS - The match was the final contest for Frontier seniors Megan Sullivan, Melanie Abercrombie, Courtney Parent, Kelsey Abramson and Wheeler.

"They are an amazing group of girls," said junior Cassidy Stankowski, who served as team captain alongside Abramson this season. "They work hard every day. It feels great to send them out with a state championship. I hope they all remember this day for the rest of their lives."

MacDonald praised his senior class after the match.

"I have to give it up to them. Courtney and (Wheeler) set great today, hit great today," he said. "Kelsey was hurt early in the year, came back and has been great at the net. Mel played a lot when Kelsey was hurt (early in the season) and got the team through that time. She also did a nice job when we had her come in for a bit (Saturday) to give Kate a rest. Megan Sullivan was hitting on the right side when (Wheeler's) shoulder was hurt and that was big for us at that time."

INCREDIBLE NUMBERS - The season ends with the Red Hawks continuing to post amazing marks.

Frontier now has not lost more than one match in a season since 2007 and more than two since 2004. The Red Hawks are 91-3 over the past three seasons and MacDonald is 198-15 (.930) in nine years at Frontier.

COMMON OPPONENT - Both Frontier and Case entered Saturday's championship match with one blemish on their records and they were both to the same team.

Frontier's lone loss this season was a 3-2 defeat at defending state Division 1 champion Barnstable.

Before Saturday's 3-2 victory, those were the only three games the Red Hawks lost all season.

Case, meanwhile, took a 3-1 loss at Barnstable. The Cardinals had lost only a total of six games all season before Saturday.

Jim Pignatiello can be reached at jpignatiello@gazettenet.com.