Mitchell sweeps Tigers in ESD volleyball matchup

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HURON — The Huron Tigers volleyball team came out flat and were unable to mount much offense Tuesday night, absorbing a 3-0 shutout defeat at the hands of the Mitchell Kernels, in ESD action at Huron Arena.
It was the annual “Pink Out” for breast cancer awareness game for the Tigers and a good number of fans - in the student section and in the balcony - showed up in their “We Can, We Will” pink t-shirts.
“I don’t know what to say,” said a stunned Tiger coach Shelly Buddenhagen after the match. “We competed really well last week in Sioux Falls, then come in here on our home court and we absolutely didn’t compete well or compete hard.”
 The teams came into the match with Huron holding the No. 5 seeding spot, a half-point and one spot ahead of the Kernels. Huron earned a five-set, knock-down, drag-out nail biter in mid-September. Both teams exited the Arena with identical marks of 14-7 on the season and also have identical power-point totals.
As would be expected from two teams that know each other pretty well, the action throughout the first set was close. The Kernels raced to an early 4-0 lead and maintained it through much of the early going. The lead got to five points, at 10-5, before the Tigers began clawing their way back into contention. Back-to-back kills by Mackenzie Miller pushed the Kernel lead 12-6, but Huron responded with an ace by Kylie Overbay and a kill from Libby Rounds. A Mitchell hitting error and a combined Huron block by Rounds and Tenley Buddenhagen knotted the score at 13-all.
The lead was short lived, however, as first Carly Haring and then Chelsea Brewster pounded home kills to re-establish a lead for the Kernels. A Miller kill made it 21-18 in favor of the visitors, before Alaina Dale knocked home a pair of kills, Overbay laced another ace and Rounds collected a block-kill to knot the score at 22-22.

But Huron’s rally ended there, as Brewsted teed up three straight kills to put the first set in the win column for Mitchell, 25-22.
“They were out-jumping us from the start, but we had some opportunities,” Buddenhagen said. “We lose by three and if a break or two goes our way we might get that first set. We just misfired tonight.”
The second set seemed to be a carbon copy of the first, as Mitchell jumped out to a quick lead…but then the Kernels just kept building, posting a pair of 6-0 runs to claim the win in set two, 25-11.
Huron took its only lead of the match, at 1-0 in the third set, on a Mitchell hitting error, and then watched the Kernels go on a 12-1 run. It appears that the set was going to be over in short order, but a block kill from Hollee Niehus ignited a rally by the Tigers.
The Kernels helped, as the shots that Miller and Haring were pounding down the lines and into the corners suddenly began to be wide of the court. Niehus teamed with Madison Pfitzer on a block-kill, then Niehus pounded home a big right-side kill. Havyn Heinz posted back-to-back ace serves and the lead was down to two, at 12-10, as Huron ran eight straight points.
The lead never got out of hand the rest of the way, although the Tigers were also unable to get the score tied up against the visitors. Dale knocked back a block-kill and then Rounds did the same to make it 22-21, but a pair of kills by Brewster and Miller’s 16th kill of the night ended the match.
Brewster and Haring each chalked up 14 kills on the night, as setter Mandy Schmidt was able to find her big three hitters in places where they could do the most damage.
“We always say that serving is our first line of defense and we didn’t serve particularly well,” Buddenhagen said. “We had no passing game tonight and spent most of the match out of system, meaning that we were lobbing free balls over the net and were getting solid kills back.”
Huron was led by Niehus’ eight kills, while Dale added six kills. Tenley Buddenhagen had 16 set assists for the evening, while both Overbay and Heinz had a pair of ace serves.
Huron is off the rest of the week and will return to action next Tuesday at Brandon Valley. It will be the first time that the Tigers will have faced the Lynx since they played in Huron’s season opening tournament way back in late August.
The Tigers will close the regular season at the Arena on Nov. 3, when the Pierre Lady Govs come to town.