No. 1 Arrows defeat No. 3 Huron

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WATERTOWN — A hot night at the serving line and a solid defensive effort was not enough for the Huron Tigers Tuesday night, as they dropped a 3-1 ESD Conference volleyball match to the top-ranked Watertown Arrows, 17-25, 25-18, 25-20 and 25-19. Watertown improves to 17-1 while Huron falls to 13-6.
Huron registered a dozen aces in the match, but Watertown countered with nine aces and had three of their tall and powerful front line end the night with double figures in kills.
“We threw a lot at them tonight,” said Huron coach Shelly Buddenhagen, “but we didn’t make the key plays at key times and Watertown did. I am proud of how hard we battled against a really good volleyball team.”
The Arrows opened the first set with a small lead, but a Tenley Buddenhagen ace gave Huron it’s first lead, at 3-2. Tenley Buddenhagen found a comfort zone at the service line, as she stroked two more aces on that rotation and when the smoke cleared, Huron led the set 7-2.
The offensive onslaught continued for Huron as Brooke Schiltz got the first of her 11 kills on the night and added her second moments later, sandwiched around an ace by Mikena Moore, which made it 10-3 for the Tigers and the lead ballooned to 10 points through the middle of the match, with a pair of aces by Havyn Heinz and Schiltz got another kill.
The Tigers wavered a bit late in the set and Watertown got to within six points at 18-12 on a Huron hitting error, but a pair of Moore kills righted the ship and Schiltz closed the first set, going down the line for the 25-17 win.
“Our serving was good and it kept them out of system in the first set,” coach Buddenhagen said. “But they got better as the night went along.”

Although then ended the first set with all the momentum, Huron quickly found itself down 8-1 in set two. The Tigers began clawing their way back and a block by Emily Dale and Alaina Dale, along with a kill by Schiltz and a kill by Emily Dale got Huron within two points, at 16-14 and prompted an Arrow timeout.
The teams traded points, but with the score 18-15, Watertown went on a 5-0 run, as Huron got stuck on 15 points. The Tigers rallied at the end, but Watertown took the set, 25-18.
Sets three and four were virtual copies of each other. Watertown opened small leads, only to see Huron dig in and cut into those leads, and although the Tigers never got the score tied, they kept the margin to two or three points, until late in the match. Huron again got stuck at 15 points in the third set as they saw the Arrows turn a 17-15 lead into a 22-15 cushion, and despite two more aces from Tenley Buddenhagen, Watertown held on for the 25-20 win.
Set four again saw Watertown lead throughout, with Huron just unable to get a momentum swing when they needed it, while the Arrows consistently found hitters Sophie Tietz, Mckenzie Buisker and Meghan Heggelund - who ended with 13, 10 and 11 kills, respectively in the match and salted away the win.
“We had some problem with our serve receive tonight,” coach Buddenhagen noted. “We don’t have the margin of error against a team that hits the ball as well as Watertown does to give up nine aces. They did a got job of scoring even when they were out of system, where it’s tougher for us to do that.”
Schiltz’s 11 kills led the Tigers, while Moore added eight. Libby Rounds had six and both Emily Dale and Alaina Dale contributed five kills and three block kills. In addition to her six aces, Tenley Buddenhagen had 30 assists and 12 digs. Heinz had 20 digs to go with her two aces, and Alaina Dale had two aces and 13 digs in the match.
Things don’t get any easier for the Tigers as Huron hosts Sioux Falls Roosevelt, which is immediately ahead of them in the seed point standings, Friday night at Huron Arena, with a 7 p.m. start.
“Yeah, it doesn’t really get any easier with Roosevelt on Thursday,” coach Buddenhagen noted, “but at least that one is back at Huron Arena. We made good choices here tonight, but even this late in the season, we are getting better and improving. We’ll have practice for Roosevelt and try to improve on mistakes we made tonight.
Watertown won the JV match 2-0, while Huron took the sophomore competition, 2-1.

Huron               25 18 20 19
Watertown        17 25 25 25