HURON After honoring those impacted by breast cancer before the game, the Huron Tigers came out playing inspired volleyball and held serve to take a 25-13, 25-17 and 25-21 sweep of the Sioux Falls Roosevelt Rough Riders Tuesday at Huron Arena.
The opening set started off rough for the Tigers as Roosevelt junior outside hitter Myah Nilson got the first two points on kills and Kaitlyn Ewing added a kill to give the visitors a quick 3-0 lead.
Huron would slowly chip away, finally taking their first lead of the set when Jaelee Olsen slammed down a kill to make it 7-6. From that point, Huron never went on an extended run, but seemingly got two or three for every one point that the Rough Riders would get.
The longest run of the game for the Tigers began at 21-13. Olsen put down two kills, and then an Aly Davis hit found the floor to reach set point. A hitting error by Roosevelt gave the Tigers a 25-13 set win.
The first set followed exactly what Huron coach Josh Lien wanted to see from his squad.
We were serving aggressive, and they were working hard to keep the ball in play, Lien observed. At the end of the day, they had to swing hard to try to score, and they made their share of errors.
Senior Chloe Carr opened the second set for Huron with her first kill of the match. The teams traded points, but a three-point run gave Roosevelt a 12-8 lead after back-to-back Nilson kills.
Huron then went on a 10-0 run to take control of the match, following impressive serving from Addyson Knight that put the visitors out of system and led to multiple hitting errors by Roosevelt.
A quick-set kill by Jencie Goergen would give the Tigers set point at 24-17 and a hitting error by the Rough Riders sealed the set, 25-17.
A service error gave Roosevelt the first point of the third set, but Huron rattled off four straight points to take a 4-1 lead. Roosevelt quickly responded with four straight points of their own. When Ewing got a kill over the top of the Tigers blockers, Roosevelt had a 5-4 lead.
Huron would eventually claw back and get a lead on a Davis kill that made it 9-8, but the two teams traded points until Roosevelt rattled off three straight points to take a 12-10 lead.
Thats when Huron went on a 4-0 run. Roosevelt would respond with their own 4-0 run before Huron followed the attack of Davis and Olsen to go on a 4-0 run and earn a 20-17 lead, drawing a Roosevelt timeout.
Huron committed a hitting error out of the timeout, but an Arian Pfitzer kill and a Roosevelt hitting error gave Huron a 22-18 lead.
Pfitzer would get a block/kill to seal the Tigers victory, 25-21, and give Huron the three-set sweep.
The Tigers move to 7-10 behind 13 kills from Davis. Behind Davis, the Tigers had a well-spread attack, with Pfitzer recording eight kills and Carr and Olsen each tallying seven kills.
Knight was key from the service line with four aces.
The diverse hitting attack was due to hard work from Jencie Goergen and Reagan Bischoff setting, according to Lien.
I thought our setters kept our middles involved well tonight, Lien noted. Even when we went to the two-setter lineup, they focused on the middle girls.
Roosevelt falls to 2- 19. Nilson had nine kills and an ace.
Huron swept the junior varsity match, 25-15 25-19. The sophomore match went Roosevelts way in three sets.
Huron travels to Sioux Falls Jefferson on Thursday, and Lien used the Tuesday match to work on things that could be important for the Jefferson matchup.
In set two, we worked in the 6-2 formation that we havent used in a while, Lien said. Looking at Jefferson, having the extra blockers with the 6-2 could be important for us.
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