SIOUX FALLS — An incredibly hard-fought five-set match on the road went the way of the Sioux Falls Roosevelt Rough Riders Friday night as the Huron Tigers fell 17-25, 25-18, 16-25, 25-20, 13-15.

The Huron Tigers came out to a strong Roosevelt team in the first set. Abby Ward led the Rough Rider attack early on with three early kills as Roosevelt drew a Tiger timeout at 14-8.

The Rough Riders spread their attack and continued to maximize on every Huron error, building a nine-point lead and drawing a rare second set timeout from Tiger coach Shelly Buddenhagen.

Roosevelt pushed the Tigers to set point at 24-13 before the first real Huron run of the entire set, as the Tigers pushed back before a service error finished off the set in the Rough Riders favor 25-17.

Coach Buddenhagen was impressed with how Roosevelt responded to their head coach being absent due to COVID quarantine. “They played with a lot of emotion with their coach out,” Buddenhagen observed.

The second set showed a significantly different Huron offense than the first set, with a notably sharper attack at the net. After back and forth early on in the set, the Tigers began pulling away after the set was knotted at 4-4.

After a pair of Mikena Moore aces, Roosevelt called a timeout only to be greeted by yet another Moore ace after the timeout. Huron continued to stretch the lead to as much as nine at 23-14 before Roosevelt put up a late run to bring it to 23-18.

Coach Buddenhagen called a time out and got the result she wanted, as the Tigers quickly finished the set, winning 25-18. Moore dominated the set with six kills and four aces in the second set alone.

Roosevelt opened the third set with a 7-0 run behind excellent serving from junior Elizabeth Denevan and multiple Huron hitting errors. Huron then went about chipping away at that lead.

After a hitting error by the Rough Riders, Huron took the lead for the first time at 11-10. The two teams battled back and forth to 14-14.

That’s when the set seemed to slip away from the Tigers. A pair of hitting errors were the start of an 11-2 run for Roosevelt to close out the match that featured a return to Rough Rider dominance at the net that was the theme of the first set. Roosevelt took the third set 25-16 to take a 2-1 set advantage.

Coach Buddenhagen noted the errors over the course of the night as costing the Tigers opportunities. “The type of team we are does not allow for error, and we were high-error tonight,” Buddenhagen remarked.

Huron followed a strong start from Brooke Schiltz in the fourth set to take an early lead, building the lead to as much as 15-8 as Schiltz had three kills and an ace in Huron’s first nine points. Roosevelt stormed back, however, to take their first lead of the set at 17-16.

A pair of Tenley Buddenhagen quick-set kills and a trio of points from Mikena Moore on a kill and two service aces got Huron the momentum back and forced a late Roosevelt timeout at 23-19. Huron would take the fourth set 25-20 to knot the match at two sets apiece and force a decisive fifth set.

Libby Rounds came out strong in the fifth set, working hard on defense and also tallying up kills as Huron took an early lead and forced a Roosevelt time out. The Rough Riders did claw back to tie the set at 11.

Roosevelt took the lead and the two teams battled back and forth over multiple long-volleyed points in the final few points of the match, but the Rough Riders emerged victorious with a 15-13 win in the fifth set to take the match.

While the loss was disappointing, Coach Buddenhagen felt the team was extremely close.

“We’ve just got to find ways to be better and make those big plays at the end,” Buddenhagen stated. “We just couldn’t put the ball down there at the end.”

Roosevelt moves to 7-9 with the win behind excellent work from their junior-laden team, led by Abby Ward with 14 kills.

Huron fell to 13-3 despite a big game from Mikena Moore with 13 kills and six aces on the night.

Huron hosts Mitchell in the Stand Up to Cancer game Tuesday.