HARRISBURG The two-time defending Class AA state champion Harrisburg Tigers flexed their undefeated muscles Thursday night, defeating the Huron Tigers 3-0 in Eastern South Dakota Conference volleyball action at the Harrisburg Gymnasium.
Harrisburg pushes its season record to 7-0 this year, after running the table and going 27-0 last season. In fact, the team hasnt lost to a South Dakota team in four years.
Well, they are as advertised, right? asked Huron coach Josh Lien at the close of the match. They are big, talented and they swing hard. There is a reason that scouts from Nebraska are here watching this match. Starting an eighth-grader and a freshman, they could be good for a long time.
Huron came off the bus flat, finding themselves down 12-1 in very short order in the opening set. Jencie Goegen got a quick set kill and Aly Davis snuck one through the Harrisburg defense, but the lead was too large and Harrisburg took the first set 25-5.
Huron was better prepared for the second set, as a Goegen kill and then an ace, coupled with four straight Harrisburg miscues put Huron up 7-2, as the home team looked out of sorts.
A kill by Aurora Drey kept the Huron roll going, but two kills by Bergen Stiff, sandwiched around one from Kennedy Kokenge, cut the lead to one. The teams traded points, until kills from Stiff, Julia Masselink and a block kill by Kokenge put Harrisburg up 13-10 and the home team steadily built the lead from there, scoring the last four points of the set and taking the 25-17 win.
We came out and went back to our bread-and-butter, Lien said. We served more aggressively and we really worked at speeding them up. We took some good swings in the second set and we played well in bits and pieces. We just needed to find a way to string some of those good things together a little more tonight.
Set three saw Harrisburg again jump out to a quick 9-1 lead, as outside hitter Gabi Zachariasen had three kills in the set and closed out the match with a pair of aces, as Harrisburg took the set and the match, 25-7.
Zachariasen led Harrisburg with 11 kills, while both Stiff and Karalynn Leach added seven. Freshman setter Josalyn Samuels chalked up 31 saves in the match and Maggie Meister – one of only two seniors on the Harrisburg roster – led the defense with 20 digs. Kokenge had three aces in the match.
For Huron, which falls to 4-5 with the loss, Goergen had two kills and two aces, both Davis and Addyson Knight had three kills and Dreyer had two kills.
We have things on which to work, for sure, said Lien. We will get back to practice, maybe get a couple bumps healed up and get ready for Aberdeen Central next week.
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