HURON — A back and forth match, which went five sets, saw the Brookings Bobcats take a 3-2 win over the Huron Tigers in Eastern South Dakota Conference volleyball action Thursday night at Huron Arena. Set scores for the Bobcats, who improve to 10-6, were 11-25, 25-19, 23-25, 25-14 and 15-13. Huron falls to 4-7 with the loss.

“This is still sinking in; this one is a tough one,” said Huron coach Josh Lien after the back-and-forth match. “We played up and down all night, but we had our opportunities. We played better tonight, but still not well enough to earn the win.”

After an outing that provided no silver linings in Aberdeen on Tuesday, a completely different Tiger team emerged to take the opening serve against Brookings. Fans hadn’t even settled in with their popcorn before Huron rode a pair of aces and two kills from Addyson Knight, a huge kill from Aurora Dreyer and a spike by Samantha Mangmoradeth to a quick 8-1 lead.

Brookings woke up, and after three straight Huron errors, the lead was down to three points, at 10-7, but aces by Jencie Goergen and Aly Davis righted the Tiger ship. Four straight points late in the set - kills by Mangmoradeth and Dreyer and back-to-back aces by Goergen capped a Tiger rally and pushed the lead to 22-9 and Huron cruised to the win.

The second set was everything the first set wasn’t, as the teams traded points to a 9-9 tie. A 3-0 Brookings run was matched by the Tigers, keyed by a pair of Mangmoradeth kills, but Macy Even and Rylee Thompson got the Bobcats back on track and into an 18-14 lead, and Huron got no closer, ending the set on back-to-back hitting errors, for the 25-19 Brookings win.

Set three was back and forth as well. Consecutive Knight kills forged Huron its largest lead through the first half of the set, at 13-10.

Thompson and Even drug Brookings back, however, and three straight Tiger errors forged a 15-15 tie for the Bobcats.

From there, the lead never got larger than three points, as a service error on Brookings gave Huron a 21-18 lead as the teams prepared for the end of the set.

Mangmoradeth converted, which was answered by Lily Thompson and Brookings held a 22-20 lead.

But the remainder of the set belonged to the Tigers. Knight got the ball rolling with a kill, and Dreyer tied the score with a quick kill off a nifty Goergen set. Huron gave Brookings its last lead, 23-22, on a hitting error, but Mangmoradeth knotted the score with a big swing into the heart of the Bobcat defense, and Davis got the last two points of the set on perfectly placed kills and Huron took the set 25-23.

Everything that went right for Huron in the first set broke Brookings’ way in the fourth set, as the Bobcats took a 6-0 lead right off the bat.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, that was as close as they would get in the set as Brookings won the set going away, 25-14, setting up a deciding fifth set.

As the match was marked by ebbs and flows, the fifth was a microcosm if the night.

Brookings rant out to a 4-1 lead, but kills by Knight and Davis and a Knight ace knotted the score at 4-4. Mangmoradeth pushed a kill past the front line of the Bobcats and two straight Brookings errors staked Huron to a 7-5 lead.

Out of a Brookings timeout, the Tigers returned the favor, giving back three straight points on mistakes and Even notched a kill to make it 10-7 Bobcats.

Huron responded with kills from Dreyer and Davis and an error on Brookings tied it at 10-10.

A kill by Alexis Ziegeldorf gave Huron a lead, but Even responded to tie the game. Brookings made an error and Ziegeldorf got another kill and Huron held a 13-11 lead.

But that was the last gasp for the Tigers, as Brookings libero Morgan Norgaard stroked consecutive aces to put Brookings ahead and a final Huron kill attempt sailed just long.

Even ended the night with 18 kills and Rylee Thompson added 12 for the Bobcats.

Knight had 13 kills and three aces to pace Huron, which also got 10 kills from Mangmoradeth and nine from Dreyer. Davis had seven kills in the match.

Huron returns to action on Tuesday when its hosts Sioux Falls Washington back at Huron Arena.

Lower level action saw Brookings with the JV match 25-20 and 25-21, while Huron held on to win the Sophomore tilt, 28-26, 17-25 and 15-10.