HURON — The Huron Tigers went toe-to-toe with the Sioux Falls Washington Tuesday night at Huron Arena, ultimately falling 3-0 to the fourth-ranked Warriors, 25-19, 25-21 and 25-18. Washington improves to 8-2 with the win, while Huron falls to 4-8.

“We played hard tonight and in practice this week and I thought that our effort gave us a chance to win,” said Huron coach Josh Lien. “We had good moments tonight…we just need to string more of them together.”

Washington somewhat set the theme of the night in the first set, racing to a 6-1 lead, with three kill and three Huron errors.

But the Tigers responded, as Aurora Dreyer got kills on consecutive points for Huron and when Jencie Goergen collected two quick-set kills, the Tigers had climbed back to a 9-9 tie.

The Warriors went back in front as Kaelyn Snoozy collected a kills and Meagan McCloskey snuck in an ace, but four straight Washington miscues gave Huron its first lead of the night, at 16-15. The teams traced points, as Cate Legel got a kill for the Warriors, but she was answered by a big swing from Aly Davis to tie the game at 19-all.

Two quick Washington points prompted a timeout from Lien, but the momentum was on the Warrior side of the net and the visitors closed out the set on a 6-0 run.

And that was the theme. Washington pulled away, then Huron caught up, but were never able to establish a run and control the action.

“I thought that we came out ready to play and the first set gave us a real boost of confidence,” Lien said. “We were tied at 19-19 and playing through some difficulties and seeing we can play with a team that has a couple D-1 players really gave us confidence and allowed us to compete.”

The second set was similar; Washington took a quick 7-2 lead, but a pair of kills by Dreyer and an ace from Hailey Rogers kept Huron in the game. The Warriors ran three straight points on kills from McCloskey, Snoozy and Maylee Roth to go up 17-9, their biggest lead of the set and it was 19-11 when a kill from Goergen kicked the Tigers into gear.

Addy Knight got a kill and Goergen laced an ace, but Washington scored twice to right the ship.

Huron got a kill from Knight, an ace from Knight and a kill from Samantha Mangmoradeth and when Dreyer and Chloe Carr combined for a big block/kill, the Tigers were within three points, 22-19. That however was a close as the Tigers would get, as Roth connected on two kills to close out the 25-21 Washington set win.

Huron got off the mark better in set three and traded points with the Warriors until a 5-0 Washington run, compliments of Jersey Peterson and Legel staked them to a 10-6 lead.

The Tigers fired back, as Mangmoradeth got a kill, Goergen collected her third ace of the night and Dreyer pounded a kill down the line to cut the lead to two points.

A hitting error on the Warriors cut the lead to a single point, at 12-11, but Washington scored the next five points. A pair of aces by Knight cut the margin back to two points, at 17-15, but Legel got a kill, stepped to the service line and got an ace, and Snoozy went cross-court with a kill and it was suddenly 21-16 and Washington held serve as Snoozy scored their final two points, her 13th and 14th kills of the match.

Snoozy’s 14 kills led all players, while Legel added 11 kills and Peterson ended with six.

Huron got six kills and three aces from Knight. Goergen added three and three, Dreyer had seven kills, Davis had five and Carr ended with three.

“We served well and doing that puts pressure on the other team,” Lien observed. “As coaches, we look at aces versus aces and that is a good indicator of how aggressive we are at the service line. Hitting wise, we spread the wealth better and we need to do that. We can have one hitter have a bad night, but we can’t have two. We played better, but there are still lots of things to tweak before we head to Lincoln on Thursday night.”

Huron returns to action with a trip to face the S.F. Lincoln Patriots, who carried a record of 6-6 into their Tuesday game at Mitchell.

“We will have a game plan for them tomorrow and start getting it put together,” Lien said. “I think we match up well with Lincoln and we should have a good opportunity to come home with a W.”

In lower level action on Tuesday, Huron swept Washington in both the Sophomore and JV matches, with both going three sets.