HURON — In a match that was a great metaphor for Fair Week, the Huron Tigers survived a true rollercoaster clash with the Aberdeen Central Golden Eagles, taking a 3-2 win over the visitors at Huron Arena.

Set scores for Huron, now 5-0 on the season, were 25-17, 20-25, 25-21, 25-27 and 15-9.

“It’s early season volleyball,” said Tiger coach Josh Lien. “I hate to say that it but it is true. We gave up the equivalent of two games - 50 points - on hitting and serving errors.

The Tigers came out of the gate flying in the first set, sprinting to a 6-0 lead and never got closer in the set.

Making sure that took place were veterans Hamtyn Heinz and Brynn Gose and freshman Elin Schoenhard, who all had multiple kills or block kills in that set.

Huron’s Brynn Gose plays a volley during a match against Aberdeen Central on Thursday at Huron Arena.

The second set was 180 degrees different, as the Golden Eagles rode the power swings of Leah Gough and Grace Kuch to an early lead. Gose had four kills, Karsyn Kopfmann had a couple kills and newcomers Emma Miller and DaJai Claggett kept the Tigers in the match, but were unable to get closer than five points as the Golden Eagles knotted the match at a set each.

The script flipped again in the third set, mainly on the deft touch of junior hitter Claggett. She had four kills, one of them a dunk over the net, one a bullseye tip, while Isabelle Ellwein had a kill and Kopfmann found the floor as well, as Huron stormed to a 10-3 lead.

Gough stopped the 5-0 Tiger run, but Schoenhard and Gose got kills to right the ship as Huron built its lead to as many as eight points in the mid-way point of the set. Kuch got two kills and eighth-grader Lauryn Burckhard scored as well to bring the Golden Eagles close, but they never got even and Huron took the set, 25-21.

Huron’s Karsyn Kopfmann sets the ball over the net during a match against Aberdeen Central on Thursday at Huron Arena.

After each of the first three sets saw one team run away and hide, the fourth set was a grind, as neither squad mounted more than a five-point lead until a Kuch kill put the Golden Eagles up 20-15. The Tigers, however, kept chipping away and two kills by Claggett, two from Gose and a huge block kill from Schoenhard brought Huron within a point, at 23-22. An Aberdeen hitting error knotted the score, but Kuch scored down the line. Kopfmann scored on back-to-back possessions to put Huron up at match point, 25-24, but Kuch responded with three straight kills to close out the 27-25 win.

Neither team was particularly sharp to start the deciding set, but an ace from Bryn Huber seemed to ignite the Tigers. Schoenhard got a kill, as did Claggett and then Claggett stroked an ace and suddenly it was 12-8 in Huron’s favor.

A service error and a hitting error by the Golden Eagles put the Tigers at match point again, and this time Gose found the very top of the net and the ball rolled nearly across the court to fall in for the deciding point of the match.

The final kill was Gose’s 16th in the match. Claggett added nine and an ace, Schoenhard collected seven kills, three of them timely blocks, while Kopfmann and Emma Miller each had five kills.

Kuch had 17 kills and Gough added 12 as the Golden Eagles dropped their first match of the season to fall to 3-1.

“I’m proud of how we persevered tonight,” said Lien. “Some kids stepped up to pick us up after Heavan was out with an injury and we tried numerous combinations tonight. But you gotta play matches like this one, right, to learn how to win when maybe you are down a player or you’re not playing your best and we did that tonight.”

Huron has a quick turnaround, as they will travel to Mitchell on Saturday afternoon for a matchup with the Kernels.

Aberdeen Cent. 17 25 21 27 9
Huron                  25 20 25 25 15