HURON — For the second time in just over a week, the Huron Tiger volleyball team took the court Tuesday night against the Pierre Lady Govs in ESD action.
Coming into the game, Huron sat in the No. 8 spot in Class “AA” volleyball, the final entry for a first round game in this year’s Sweet 16 state volleyball configuration, while Pierre sat in the No. 12 spot.
Huron was pushed to five sets in the first meeting, and took Tuesday night’s match in four, winning 27-25, 25-8, 12-25, 25-11.
The teams began slowly, as both found difficulty in keeping the ball inbounds in the early going. Huron opened a slim lead, only to see the Lady Govs storm back and take a 16-14 lead behind kills from Maddy Hyde and an ace by Kodi Severyn, when Huron’s rotation brought Kayla Shillingstad to the service line.
The Huron senior had her serve working, and when the dust cleared Shillingstad had strung together five straight ace serves, and Huron had a 20-16 lead. A Shillingstad kill made the score 24-18 moments later, but Pierre rallied with six straight points to tie the score and force extra volleyball.
After trading points, Huron closed the deal on a kill by Hollee Niehus and a block/kill from Shillingstad for the 27-25 win.
“We had a lot of unforced errors in the opening set,” said Huron coach Shelly Buddenhagen. “We’ve worked on cutting down the errors and while we got started kind of rough, we settled down and contained those errors after the first set.”
If the first set was a give and take affair, the second was all Huron.
Niehus had a pair of kills, Mikena Moore had one and Carli Lentsch added a block/kill to stake the Tigers to an early 9-4 lead.

From that point, Pierre hitting errors, combined with a solid blocking attack from Shillingstad and Niehus, a kill from Kayla Schimke and two more Shillingstad aces pushed the margin to 19-8 for Huron.
From there, Niehus had a pair of kills, added another block/kill,  and a Shillingstad ace closed out the 25-8 win for Huron.
“Jayda really had her serve dialed in tonight,” Buddenhagen noted. “We have put some more emphasis on serving in practice, reiterating that it is our first line of defense, and we had a good night serving.”
Poised for the three-set sweep, the Tigers came out flat in the third set. Some Huron hitting errors combined to put the Lady Govs up 8-2 early.
Huron struggled to find a groove in the set, closing the margin to five points on several occasions, but never got closer as a Severyn kill closed out the set for Pierre, 25-12.
The momentum seemed to change ends of the floor with the teams for the fourth set, as Huron stormed to a 4-0 lead out of the gate, behind kills from Niehus and Schimke.
The Lady Govs rallied, but Moore pounded home a kill between a pair of Pierre errors to stake Huron to an 11-3 lead.
A Niehus kill later pushed the Tiger lead to 18-6, and the Lady Govs never got closer. Shillingstad and Schimke knocked home kills to put Huron on the edge of the win, and a Tenley Buddenhagen kill sealed the deal.
For the Tigers, Niehus had 12 kills to lead the way, with Schimke tacking on seven. Shillingstad filled the stat sheet, with six kills, seven aces, 17 set assists and a pair of block kills.
Huron is on the road this weekend, tangling with Rapid City Stevens on Friday night and Rapid City Central on Saturday afternoon.
Bush led Pierre with eight kills, Hyde and Erika Stout each added six, while Severyn and Heiss both chalked up five kills.
The Lady Govs prevailed in the preliminary matches, winning both the Sophomore and Junior Varsity games, with both matches going three sets.

Photos:

Huron’s Tenley Buddenhage sets the ball over the net during a match against Pierre on Tuesday at Huron Arena.

Next, Huron’s Havyn Heinz passes the ball during a match against Pierre on Tuesday at Huron Arena.

Photos by Mike Carroll of the Plainsman