HURON — The Aberdeen Central Golden Eagles defeated the Huron Tigers 3-1 in Thursday night Class AA volleyball action at the Huron Arena.
The Golden Eagles. who are ranked No. 4 in Class AA, move to 9-4 on the season, with set scores of 25-9, 16-25, 25-19 and 25-21. The Tigers’ season record drops to 8-7.
The Golden Eagles dominated the first set, finishing with a 16-point difference of 25-9. The Tigers struggled with errors through set one, Mikena Moore got things started for Huron with a pair of kills, and after the Tigers took their first time out, Kayla Schimke chimed in with a kill. Haylee Mork was the first to get a point in the match, followed by Melia Mounga and Brooklyn Hofer kills.
“The crucial mistakes at crucial times is what’s going to cost us,” said said coach Shelly Buddenhagen.
Huron picked up momentum in the second set with triple kills from Hollee Niehus, as the Tigers and the Eagles played a chasing game with points early on. Paiton Burckhard brought the Eagles to a lead at 10-6 with an ace and a kill, then a pair of Havyn Heinz aces and a Jayda Shillingstad kill started a long 11-point run for Huron, landing the Tigers at 23-15. Errors on both sides brought the Tigers to set point and Niehus took the last kill of the set, ending at 25-16.
“We gotta come out a little stronger,” said Buddenhagen, “They had an answer to everything we were doing and we didn’t adjust, but we came back in the second set with an 11-0 run.”
Back and fourth hitting errors between teams early in the third set brought the score to a tie at 3-3. Then a couple of kills by Burckhard and Cassidy Gough plus some Huron erros gave the Eagles a four-point run, which was broken by a Schimke kill and an ace by Alexis Urena. The teams had another run of ties until the Eagles took over again. The third set was over at 25-19 to Aberdeen.  
“We have got to keep teaching, getting better and learning, and things may turn over,” Buddenhagen stated, “We made three big mistakes in a row and if that had gone differently for us we would have played a fifth set.”

The score stayed tight in the fourth set until Aberdeen took a 7-0 run, bringing the score to 21-15. Burckhard dominated the final set with seven kills and 17 total for the night, but the Tigers took some points back from multiple players, with kills from Carli Lentsch, Schimke, Tenley Buddenhagen and Shillingstad. Mounga brought the game to an end with a kill making the final score 25-21.  
“Something we will talk about tomorrow at practice will be what can we trust and what do we need to work on,” said coach Buddenhagen.
The Huron Tigers will be back in action on Tuesday when they will host a match against the Pierre Lady Govs, while the Eagles will travel to Yankton on Saturday.

Huron           9  25  19  21
Aberdeen Central     25  16  25  25

Hitting: HU - Hollee Niehus, 13 kills; Kayla Schimke, 11 kills; Jayda Shillingstad, 4 kills; Tenley Buddenhagen, 4 kills.
Setting: HU - Shillingstad, 30 assists; Buddenhagen 1 assist.
Serving: HU - Havyn Heinz, 3 aces; Shillingstad, 2 aces; Isabell Ford, 1 ace.
Digs: HU - Heinz, 44 digs; Shillingstad, 15 digs; Alexis Urena, 15 digs; Ford, 14 digs.
Blocks: HU - Shillingstad, 1 block; Niehus, 1 block.

Photos:

Huron’s Isabell Ford passes the ball during a match against Aberdeen Central on Thursday at Huron Arena.

Huron’s Hollee Niehus volleys the ball during a match against Aberdeen Central on Thursday at Huron Arena.

Photos by Mike Carroll of the Plainsman