HURON — The Huron Tigers notched their fourth win in a row Tuesday night, avenging a loss midseason with a 3-0 beatdown of the Mitchell Kernels at Huron Arena. Set scores for the Tigers, who improve to 12-9 and solidify their position for a home playoff game, were 25-23, 25-10 and 25-18. Mitchell falls to 11-10 with the loss.
“We had great energy tonight on ‘Pink-Out night’ and we had great contributions from throughout the lineup,” said Huron coach Josh Lien. “We hustled, we were vocal and this is a great win for us tonight.”
When the teams met in September, Mitchell’s offense focus Kaspen Alm recorded 21 kills and had a match where she had no trouble finding holes in the Huron defense in the 3-1 win for the Kernels. Huron’s Brynn Gose also had 21 kills in that September match and while Gose had a great night Tuesday - she led Huron with 15 kills - Alm had more misfires than kills as the Huron attack kept the Kernels off balance throughout the night.
The teams played give-away throughout the first half of the first set - trading hitting and serving errors as they tried to find a rhythm. A Reese Rozell kill tied the score at 9-9, but Mitchell scored three straight points and forced a Lien timeout. A service error by the Kernels out of the break set a 7-2 spurt by the Tigers into motion. Huron benefitted from three straight Mitchell errors, then the Tiger hitters began to connect successfully. Gose sandwiched kills around a kill from Karsyn Kopfmann and Heavan Gainey got in a big swing as Huron surged to a 17-14 lead, prompting a Mitchell timeout.
The break failed to stem the Tiger momentum, however, as the Kernel attack continued to misfire. Another Rozell kill staked Huron to a five point lead, at 20-15. After trading points, Mitchell began a mini-run, that saw the Kernels get back to a single point at 22-21 on a Tiger hitting error. The teams were tied at 23-all moments later, but Gose knocked home back-to-back kills to ice the 25-23 Huron win.
“I thought that coming off the pregame ceremonies tonight that the girls got refocused pretty well,” Lien said. “We didn’t play really sharp in the first set, but I was pleased that we pulled out the win in a set where we didn’t play really well. That was big for us as it gave us momentum going forward.”
Set two found the teams playing closely through the early going again, as an Alm kill got Mitchell to a 6-5 deficit. But the Tigers hit overdrive, going on another 7-2 run, ignited by an ace from Bryn Huber. Rozell chalked up three kills in the rally and Emily Dale got one as well, as Huron took advantage of a trio of mis-hits by the Kernels.
The lead swelled to 11 points a short time later, on a kill by Dale and two from Gose and Huron quickly closed out the 25-10 win, as Hamtyn Heinz finished the set with one of her two aces on the night.
“We talked in practice on how we wanted to force Mitchell to defend us tonight,” Lien said, “to always be on the attack. We had some service errors, but we knew we had to serve aggressively to limit Alm’s opportunities and that worked to our advantage tonight.”
Dale, Kopfmann and Heinz got Huron rolling in the third set, although Mitchell’s Lizzie Tyler notched back-to-back kills to stake the Kernels to a 6-4 lead. Another Huber ace kicked off a Huron run that saw Dale and Gainey combined for a block-kill, saw Dale collect a stuff block-kill by herself and then connect on a cross-court kill before Gose scored on consecutive swings to a 12-9 Huron lead, and while Mitchell never went away, the momentum was on the Tiger side of the floor. The Kernels got the lead down to two points, at 15-13 on kills from Kaitlyn Christensen and Taylor Giblin, and an ace by Paige Guthmiller. Gose responded with a kill, Kopfmann found an open spot for a kill, Heinz got her second ace and Gainey got a kill before Mitchell misfired on an attempt and suddenly it was 20-13 and the Tigers closed the deal on a kill from Rozell.
“We played well enough to win the first set and then we got the momentum and kept it the rest of the night,” said Lien. “Holding Alm in check was a goal and to hold her to six kills is huge. If we can hold a team’s leading hitter to single digits we’re going to win a lot of matches.”
Alm’s six kills led the Kernels, who got three kills each from Tyler, Christensen, Sawyer Stoebner and Taylor Haring in the match.
As is their goal, the Tigers got contributions from many players in the win. Gose had 15 kills, while Dale added eight and Gainey, Kopfmann and Rozell each had six in Huron’s balanced attack. Huber had two aces and Heinz had three kills and a pair of aces.
Huron’s reward for its four-game winning streak is a rare late-season week off, as the Tigers return to action Nov. 2, when they travel to second-ranked and defending state champion O’Gorman for a match, before wrapping up the regular season against Brandon Valley at Huron Arena Nov. 4.
Huron came into the Mitchell match in eighth-place in the Class “AA” seeding for the SoDak 16 state tournament play-in game, a position that would make that a home game. Tuesday’s win didn’t lock that home game up for the Tigers, but certainly helped them maintain their place in the standings.
In the lower level matches, Mitchell took the Sophomore tilt in straight sets, 25-19 and 25-19, while Huron posted a come-from-behind win in the JV match, taking the 17-25, 25-16, 15-9 three-set victory.
Set scores
Mitchell 23 10 18
Huron 25 25 25
