Tigers escape with win against Aberdeen Central

BY JACQUE NILES
ABERDEEN AMERICAN NEWS
ABERDEEN — The only thing that wasn’t close in Saturday’s Eastern South Dakota Conference volleyball showdown between Huron and Aberdeen Central was the first set. And that was an anomaly.
The Golden Eagles pulled away from a 12-11 lead in the opening stanza, then clawed, scratched, fought and scrambled their way to a fifth set before falling in a 5-set battle Saturday night at Golden Eagles Arena.
Huron won by set scores of 12-25, 27-25, 25-22, 23-25 and 15-13.
“It’s just a process of us figuring out what to do in critical moments and learning how to win,” said Central coach Dennis Northrup. “We talked about that. We talked about it before the match and we talked about it after the Watertown match.”
Central ran away from a back-and-forth opener on a dead sprint, riding the serving prowess of Kayleigh Fauth and Grace Myhre to a 13-1 run to end the stanza.
“We weren’t prepared for Aberdeen’s serving,” said Huron coach Shelly Buddenhagen. “We couldn’t pass that ball. We just struggled passing. We talked about settling in and trusting our practice reps and trusting the process. We knew if we could pass, we had a chance to get some good swings or get Holly (Niehus) some good looks. But if we’re not in system, we were going to be in trouble.

That, however, would not be a foreshadowing of things to come.
Huron got out to a big lead in the second before watching Central claw back from a 24-18 deficit to tie the set at 24-all. The Golden Eagles staved off just one more set point, however, before Huron tied the match on one of 31 Niehus kills.
Set three was more of the same with Huron taking the final three points on Golden Eagle errors, one of which came from the service line.
“We missed some critical serves too, just at the wrong time,” Northrup said. “You’ve got the momentum and the only thing we did was give it back to them.”
Central, however, returned the favor in the fourth, taking the final three points of that set. Cassidy Gough had two kills in that final stretch to help put the stanza away and force the deciding fifth set.
There, the Golden Eagles squandered perhaps their best chance of victory, racing out to a 6-0 start and leading 12-7 late before watching the Tigers slip away at the end.
“Both teams had a lot of unforced errors,” Buddenhagen said. “That’s what it came down to at the end.”
Gough had 22 total kills and was in on a pair of blocks to lead the Golden Eagle front line.
Brooklyn Kusler had 15 kills and Lexi LaFave added another eight. Fauth, Gough and Kusler also finished with 16 or more digs.
Niehus’ 31 kills led all players for Huron. Mikena Moore added 10 more and Alaina Dale had seven. Tenley Buddenhagen had 56 assists.
Central will host Pierre Thursday at 7 p.m. Huron is on the road to face No. 4 Mitchell Tuesday.

PHOTOS BY JOHN DAVIS/ABERDEEN AMERICAN NEWS
Huron’s Melissa Berg, right, hits the ball past Aberdeen Central’s Madelynn Diede, left, during Saturday night’s match at the Golden Eagles Arena.

Next, Huron’s Tenley Buddenhagen, center and Mikena Moore, right, defend the net as Aberdeen Central’s Cassidy Gough, left, reaches to hit the ball during Saturday night’s match at the Golden Eagles Arena.