Prairie Ridge never trailed in the first set against Fox Valley Conference leader Hampshire.

When the Wolves needed to turn it on in the second set, they had no trouble finishing.

Prairie Ridge came alive and scored the match’s last six points to knock off Hampshire 25-18, 25-21 on Thursday in Crystal Lake, handing the Whip-Purs their first FVC loss and forcing a two-way tie atop the conference standings with six matches to go.

“After losing the first time to them and coming back to win in two sets, it’s a big boost for the rest of our season,” said junior libero Tegan Vrbancic, who had 13 digs and one kill. “We went into today like, ‘We want this. We’re going to do this together.’

“I just think everybody had the same mindset going in.”

The Wolves (16-2, 11-1 FVC) jumped ahead in the first set on the strength of junior outside hitters Maizy Agnello (13 kills, two blocks) and Adeline Grider (seven kills, ace). The high-flying Agnello, a Missouri commit, finished with eight points in the opening set, including the set winner, while Grider added six.

Grider started the season at middle blocker but has since moved to outside, a position she feels more comfortable at and is looking to play in college. Along with Agnello, the powerful juniors are a lot to handle.

“Once I got to the outside, I had the mentality of I’m going to prove I belong here,” Grider said. “I always have the mentality of I’m going to find a way to score for my team. And listening to Tegan. She’s always in my ear telling me the zones that I need to go.”

In the second set, Hampshire’s Elizabeth King, a 5-11 senior outside and UIC commit, started hot with her team’s first two points. She later had back-to-back points to put the Whips (22-5, 11-1) ahead 16-12.

Prairie Ridge, however, was able to keep things close thanks to the stellar play of middle blockers Sonora Bekere (five kills, block), a junior, and Harleigh Serpico (three kills), a senior. A block by Bekere tied the set at 18, while Serpico had two of her kills during the second-set comeback for the Wolves.

“First off, our passing was awesome,” Wolves coach Leah Groat said. “Tegan did a great job. Because our passing was so good, we could really diversify our offense and get everybody involved, which helped open up our hitters to not always have a double block on them. Getting our middles involved was huge. They did a great job.”

Groat said Bekere has recently started to take off for the Wolves.

“She’s a kid over the last couple of of years we have said, ‘Oh my gosh, she is so athletic,’ ” Groat said. “She is so coachable and works so hard in practice. Throughout the season, she’s finding more and more confidence, and I think tonight was probably her best match.

“I said to all of them, ‘You don’t look scared. You look confident and you look like you trust each other.’ That really showed tonight.”

Also for the Wolves, senior Addi Smith passed 27 assists, senior Kaelin Bacak added five digs and senior Abbi Smith had three kills.

King led Hampshire with seven kills, senior libero Peyton Wurtz led the defense with seven digs and senior setter Kylee Lambert had 10 assists.

Hampshire led by as many as five points in the second set but couldn’t put away Prairie Ridge.

“I think we started kind of playing safe, trying not to make errors, but at the same time we were making errors,” Whips coach Omar Cortez said. “We weren’t playing aggressively like we did against them [the first time]. Just little things we have to clean up. A lot of hitting errors on our side and serve receive was not our cleanest game by far.

“[Prairie Ridge] just gave us different looks. They did a good job adjusting.”

The Whips also had a hard time adjusting to the different looks from Agnello.

“I said it the first time we played them, you’re never going to stop her,” Cortez said. “All you can do is slow her down a bit and make her work. We were able to get her a couple times, but she ended up going to a couple of off-speed [shots]. She’s got a [heck] of a swing and she can get up there.”

Grider said Thursday’s win was a total team effort, one her and her teammates hope propel them to the top of the conference for good.

“We had a good drive,” Grider said. “We went in with the same mentality of, ‘We’re going to win this. We’re going to take them down.’ ”