HURON — The Huron Tigers executed their game plan to perfection Tuesday night, overpowering the Pierre Governors 3-1 in Eastern South Dakota Conference volleyball at Huron Arena. Set scores for the Tigers, who improve to 5-9 and broke a five-match losing streak, were 25-17, 25-12, 24-26 and 25-12.

Pierre falls to 5-7 with the loss.

“We have had a handful of really good practices in the past few days,” said Tiger coach Josh Lien. “We practiced with speed and confidence and before the match I asked them to play the same way tonight and they really responded. We needed this one.”

The Tigers jumped out early in the first set, running seven straight points after spotting Pierre the first point of the night.

Addy Knight ignited the rally, which was keyed by three aces from Jencie Goergen. Aurora Dreyer got in the act with a couple of huge swings off the right side and Samantha Mangmoradeth got the first of her game-high 15 kills to stake Huron to a 10-2 lead.

The lead ballooned to 10 points on different occasions, first as Goergen collected her fourth ace of the set, then Aly Davis went back-to-back to put Huron up 22-12 and then Davis delivered the final nail in the Governors’ coffin with a big swing down the line, for the 25-17 win.

“Our serving was good tonight (Huron had 10 aces to five for Pierre) and our serve receive was better,” Lien said. In the first two sets, if Huron was able to set its offense, more likely than not the Tigers registered the point on the scoreboard.

The second set was dictated by two huge runs. Elly Broers got a kill to put Pierre up 8-7, after the teams played give-and-take in the early going. Mangmoradeth kept Huron in the set with a total of four kills in the first seven Huron points.

But then Davis kind of took over. Back-to-back-to-back kills by Davis, the second a clean block/kill, a pair of Maddy Jurgens aces and three more Davis kills staked Huron to a 15-8 cushion.

Three straight hitting errors on Huron left the door open for the Governors, however, and a kill by Jaycee Bauer cut the margin to four points, at 16-12.

But the rest of the set belonged to Huron, as five Tigers scored the last nine points of the set, for the 25-12 win.

Mangmoradeth had two kills, Hylton Heinz knuckled in two aces. Knight got a kill, as did Chloe Carr and Goergen iced it with a quick-set kill.

But you need to win three sets to take the match and every set starts out fresh and clean and Pierre made the most of the third set.

Led by Bauer, Campbell Cronin and Broers, the Governors loped out to a 14-8 lead and looked to make quick work of the Tigers.

Mangmoradeth and Knight had different ideas, however, as they keyed a Tiger rally that saw Huron cut the lead to three points, 19-16 and, after another Knight kills and a Pierre error,. Huron tied the score at 23-all.

The teams traded errors to make it 24-24, but Bauer got a block/kill and Broers snuck a quick-set into the corner and Pierre lived to play another set, 26-24.

Knight got Huron on the board first in the fourth set and after back-to-back kills by Mangmoradeth - her 14th and 15th of the night, Dreyer scored down the line and Goergen had back-to-back aces - her fifth and sixth of the night - and Huron led 7-1.

And Pierre never got closer.

Knight got a kill, Dreyer went back-to-back and Huron led 19-10 and then, after some trading of points, Dreyer put down three straight kills to close out the match win for Huron in dominant fashion, 25-12.

“I thought we played with confidence and really played with emotion,” Lien said. “I want to mention Jencie Goergen, because she played a whale of a match and made great decisions. She got all the bigs involved and when we have that many people taking successful swings, we are tough to defend.”

Goergen herself had five kills to go with her six aces and Mangmoradeth led with 15 kills. But throughout the lineup the Tigers got contributions. Davis ended in double digits with 13 kills, Knight quietly collected eight and Dreyer had nine huge kills, most of them in the decisive game. Heinz and Jurgens each had a pair of aces in the win.

Cronin led Pierre with 13 kills and Bauer chipped in eight and had an ace. Savannah Fullerton had seven kills and Broers had five in the match.

Huron will head west for Friday night/Saturday afternoon matches with Rapid City Stevens and Rapid City Central and Lien is looking forward to tweaking his team’s attack to get ready for the trip to the Black Hills.

“We’ve had great practices to get us here and we get to have a couple more before we go to Stevens,” said Lien, who won a state tournament as the Stevens head coach before moving to Huron. “I am really looking forward to continuing to do what we are doing and competing.”

Lower level action found the Tigers completing the sweep Tuesday. The JV team defeated Pierre 25-19, 18-25 and 15-9, while the Sophomores won in straight sets, 25-19 and 25-16.