COEUR d’ALENE — The Coeur d’Alene Vikings knew what was on the line Tuesday night.

They just tried to not act like it.

The Vikings dominated visiting Lake City from the start en route to a 25-10, 25-20, 25-17 victory before a raucous crowd at Viking Court, earning Coeur d’Alene a share of the 5A Inland Empire League volleyball title with the Timberwolves.

But more importantly, by winning in three sets, the Vikings grasped the No. 1 seed to the upcoming Region 1 tournament, which begins Saturday. Lake City beat the Vikings in five sets four weeks ago.

“We knew we needed to win in four or less (sets),” said senior setter/right side hitter Taylin Rowley, who finished with 10 kills and five digs. “We didn’t really focus on that; we just focused on playing our game. We keep getting better as a team, and keep progressing, and as long as we did that, and stayed disciplined as a team, we were going to win no matter what.”

Coeur d’Alene beat Lake City for the first time since 2015, when the teams also shared the league title. That was the T-Wolves’ last league loss until Tuesday. Lake City won the last three league titles outright, and Tuesday’s loss snapped its streak of 23 straight league matches won.

“I thought the girls did a really good job of fighting tonight,” Coeur d’Alene coach Carly Curtis said. “It was exciting to watch the girls finally get a win against Lake City. I think last year, we got too excited playing Lake City, and we just got frazzled. I thought they did a good job of controlling their emotions. I thought we blocked really well in that first set, and that got in their heads.”

On Saturday, Coeur d’Alene (21-5, 5-1 5A IEL) will play host to No. 4 seed Lewiston, and No. 2 seed Lake City (18-11, 5-1) will be home against No. 3 Post Falls in regional first-round matches, both at 1 p.m.

The winners advance to the championship match next Tuesday at the higher seed; the losers can still come back through the losers bracket for a chance at the region’s second berth to state.

When Lake City beat Coeur d’Alene in mid-September, the Vikings were without two starters — senior middle blocker Lili Hare (sprained ankle) and junior outside hitter Sarah Wilkey (concussion). Hare has been back for a little while, Wilkey played briefly in Coeur d’Alene’s last match.

So Tuesday night was the first time the Vikings had been at full strength in more than a month. Curtis said the match was a test of sorts for Wilkey, and by extension, the entire Coeur d’Alene team.

It would be safe to say the Vikings passed with flying colors.

Coeur d’Alene jumped out to leads of 6-1 and 9-2 in the first set. Middle blocker Elly Schraeder had a kill, Rowley slammed back an overfeed, and freshman Madi Symons had a stuff block and an overfeed kill of her own, and suddenly it was 17-4.

Schraeder slammed down a quick set from Lauren Phillips on set point.

Lake City battled in the second and third sets, but the Vikings, committing very few ballhandling errors, were too much on this night.

In the third set, with Phillips serving, Coeur d’Alene took control of the set with a 5-0 run highlighted by an overfeed kill from Schraeder and an ace from Phillips for a 14-11 lead.

Back-to-back aces by Wilkey made it 18-12, and Lake City came no closer than four points.

“It’s crazy how big of a difference just a couple of key players can make,” Rowley said. “We’re so excited to have a full team going into districts and state.”

Schraeder led Coeur d’Alene with 13 kills. Phillips had 14 assists and two blocks, Courtney Garwood nine assists and five digs, Maggie Bloom five digs and four aces, Wilkey three aces, Hare two blocks. The Vikings totaled 11 aces.

“We have everybody healthy again,” Curtis said. “That was pleasant to see how we competed, getting everybody back and healthy.”

Janae Rayborn had nine kills, Kiki Cates 10 digs, Nellie Reese 12 assists, Ella Hosfeld nine assists, Jaya Miller one ace and Alexis Keylon one ace for Lake City.

Whereas Coeur d’Alene had few ballhandling errors, Lake City had many.

“We just came out unfocused, really flat and struggled in all facets of the game,” Lake City coach Mike Summers said. “It was just one of those games where everything went wrong for us and right for them. Hopefully it’s a good lesson for us that we’ve got to show up to play every night.”