HURON — The Huron Tiger volleyball team got back in the win column Tuesday night, with a solid 3-0 win over the Pierre Governors at Huron Arena, in ESD Conference action.

Huron improves to 9-10 with the win, while Pierre falls to 8-5. Set scores for the Tigers were 25-20, 25-23 and 25-22.

“This was a very good team we beat tonight,” said Huron coach TyAnn Ulmer. “We got off to a good start and began to build our confidence and had a very good night.”

Despite all three final set scores being close, Huron trailed only once all evening, after the first point of the final set, and Pierre only managed to forge two ties in the match, both coming down the stretch in the final set.

The Tigers exploded out of the starting blocks, as kills by Samantha Mangmoradeth and DaJai Claggett, sandwiched inside three Pierre hitting errors, staked Huron to a quick 5-0 lead. Slowly, the Governors began to climb back into the match, getting the margin down to one point, at 9-8, on a kill from Campbell Boddicker, but Hamtyn Heinz got a kill, Mangmoradeth scored on consecutive attempts and Claggett laced an ace to give Huron a 13-10 lead.

Huron never gave up the lead, but weren’t able to pull away either as the set entered the second half. A kill by Makayla Sherwood from Pierre again cut the Tiger lead to one, at 15-14, but a 6-1 run, keyed by a Heinz kill and assisted by four Governor errors put the lead out to 21-15 and the Tigers cruised home to the win.

Huron again got off to a red-hot start in set two, as Claggett, Heinz and Mangmoradeth got the Tigers rolling early. Aly Davis connected for a pair of kills and Huron raced to a 9-4 lead.

Pierre began mis-firing, prompting a timeout by Governor coach Tiffany Stoeser, but the momentum was all on the Huron side of the net, as multiple Pierre errors and kills from Claggett and Mangmoradeth pushed the cushion to 10 points, at 17-7.

Pierre began to find the range, as first Reese Terwilliger and then Jaycee Bauer got kills to start a comeback. Mangmoradeth converted to pushed the lead back to eight points, but Bauer, Terwilliget and Aleise Christopherson all got kills, Huron committed a couple of errors and the margin was suddenly down to two points.

Davis converted and Madison Jurgens got an ace to stem the bleeding and Huron found themselves at set point, leading 24-20. Terwilliger and Christopherson got kills and Boddiker had an ace and suddenly it was 24-23.

The final point of the set was a kill by Mangmoradeth, but was set up during the rally by Heinz.

In a chaotic back-and-forth, Heinz pushed a quick-set attempt deep into the Governor end. In the ensuing scramble to re-group, the Pierre kill attempt was handled by the Tigers, quickly turned around and Mangmoradeth took full advantage of the Governor defense’s disaray to put away the set winner.

“The girls got a little shaky in that second set,” Ulmer noted, “but we got our feet back under us, we regrouped and that was the last time you saw a lack of confidence from them the rest of the night.”

Pierre took its lead to open the third set, but kills from Mangmoradeth, Davis and another ace from Claggett put Huron up 4-1. The lead stayed between two and four points most of the first half of the game, until a Claggett kill gave Huron a 14-9 lead.

Pierre fought back on kills from Terwilliger and Campbell Cronin, but Davis and Claggett punched back for the Tigers. Cronin scored an ace that made it 18-17 Huron, but Heinz and Claggett each got kills to push the lead back to three.

Pierre managed to knot the score at 21 and again at 22, but back-to-back errors on the Governors lead to a Davis kill that simply landed between three Pierre players as they watched it fall to end the match.

Mangmoradeth collected 11 big kills for the Tigers, leading the way on the front line blocking as well, with help from Makenzie Siemonsma and Aurora Dreyer. Claggett had six kills and three aces, Davis added five kills, Heinz had four and Jurgens notched two service aces.

Terwilliger led the Governors with nine kills, Sherwood added seven and both Boddicker and Cronin had four.

Huron is off until Friday, when the Tigers host 5-14 Rapid City Central at Huron Arena, then turn around and play Rapid City Stevens, who sit at 15-9, on Saturday afternoon.

“The Rapid City schools will show us two different looks,” Ulmer noted. “One plays pretty slowly and the other is quicker. We will build on the confidence that we saw here tonight as we get ready for the tough back-to-back matches.”

Huron wore its new pink jerseys against Pierre, as October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Tigers are selling t-shirts to raise funds that will go to Huron Regional Medical Center’s Breast Cancer Foundation and there will be an online auction leading up to the Tigers’ home game against Mitchell later this month.

To order your t-shirt, contact Ulmer or any of the team members.

Huron took the win in the JV match, 25-22, 13-25 and 15-10, while Pierre claimed the Sophomore match, 25-22, 25-22.