PIERRE — The Huron Tigers used quick starts in three of the four sets, a strong game at the service line and some huge momentum swings to upset the fourth-ranked Pierre Governors 3-1 in ESD volleyball action Tuesday night at the Pierre Riggs High School gym.
Set scores for the Tigers, who evened their record at 9-9 on the season were, 25-23, 19-25, 25-14 and 25-19. Pierre falls to 13-4 with the loss.
“When we have more attackers than just Emily (Dale) and Brynn (Gose) we can be very dangerous,” said a jubilant Huron coach Josh Lien. “We got great contributions from throughout the lineup tonight and needed it to beat a very good Pierre club.”
After falling behind from the start in all three sets to Sioux Falls Jefferson last week, Huron came out firing against the Governors, who posted a 3-0 win over the Tigers less than two weeks ago at Huron Arena.
The teams played very evenly through the early portion of the first set, as a Dale kill knotted the score at 7-7.
Remington Price got a kill for the Governors, but Dale ignited an 8-0 Tiger run, that put Huron up 15-8, as Gose got back-to-back big swings, Dale collected an ace, Karsyn Kopfmann got in the mix with a kill, then paired with Hamtyn Heinz to thwart a Pierre attack.
From that point on, Huron never allowed the Governors to get closer than two points, as kills by Gose pushed Huron to a 23-19 lead and although Pierre stayed in the game, the Govs misfired when it mattered and the Tigers took the first set.
The second set had the feel that the beast had been awakened, as Pierre sprinted to a quick 5-0 lead on kills by Price and two by MaKenna Schlekeway. The lead grew to 8-2 before Huron began climbing out of the hole. Dale got a kill, Olivia Rink slipped an ace past the Pierre defense and Dale scored again to cut into the Gov lead, but Huron was never able to get closer than four points the rest of the way as Pierre evened the match at one set each.
Gose opened the third set with back-to-back kills, as Huron broke out to an 8-4 lead and the Governors called timeout. The momentum stayed with the Tigers, however, as Reese Rozell had an ace and Dale stroked her 10th kill to offset a hitting error on Huron and a Pierre kill by Lily Sanchez.
Pierre got a kill from Kaiser that cut the lead to three points, but then hitting errors - which Pierre avoided in the first meeting two weeks ago - began to plague the Governors. While Pierre was missing on its swings, Dale and Gose were locked in. Dale got a kill, Gose got two kills and Dale had a block/kill as the Tiger lead surged to eight points, at 19-11.
Pierre attempted a rally, but kills by Heinz and two by Gose closed out the dominating 25-14 win.
If any of the players were nauseous from the momentum swings from set to set, the fourth set had more of the same, just bigger.
A Gose kill tied the score at 4-4, but touched off a 6-0 Pierre run, all on the big right arm of Ayvrie Kaiser, who collected four kills on the rally as Pierre went up 10-4. Heavan Gainey, who ended with eight timely kills for the Tigers got one of them to stop the bleeding and touched off a rally for Huron.
Dale had two block kills and found the corner on a big swing, Gainey got two tips to drop in the middle of the Governor defense, Bryn Huber - who was at the service line throughout the rally - got an ace and Rozell capped a 12-0 run for Huron that put them up 16-10.
A mini-rally by the Governors cut the lead to two points, at 17-15 and forced Lien to burn his final timeout of the set.
Dale responded out of the break with a kill and Rozell got another ace to right the ship and Huron was never threatened the rest of the way. As she did to open play in the first set, Gose closed the deal with a kill that Pierre was able to block, but was not able to keep in bounds and Huron had the match win.
“We worked on using the opposition blockers to our advantage this week - credit coach (TyAnn) Ulmer for her work with our hitters and blockers in practice,” Lien said. “When Brynn got the first point of the night by hitting it off their hands and out of bounds it was great to see that work pay off.”
In the match, Kaiser ended with 17 kills and Pierre’s lone ace of the night, as the Tiger serve receive game played outstandingly. Schlekeway had eight kills, Sanchez added nine and Reese Terwilliger ended with seven.
“We knew that Kaiser was going to get her swings,” Lien said. “What we wanted to do was use our blockers to cut the court in half and force her to change up her game. She got kills but she also hit a lot of balls out tonight.”
Dale ended with 17 kills as well, and added two aces, as Gose had 14 kills and an ace. Gainey had eight kills and Kopfmann connected on five kills.
“I give a lot of credit to the focus of our servers tonight,” Lien added. “We kept them off balance and on their heels all night long and forced them out of system at times. And a big shout out to our parents and lower level players for their support. Pierre is a tough place to play and our fans were as loud as Pierre’s student section down the stretch.”
In the lower level matches, Pierre posted a 2-0 (25-15, 25-17) sweep in the JV match and also took the Sophomore match, 25-13 and 25-15.
Huron returns to action on Friday night, when the Tigers host Rapid City Central at Huron Arena.
Huron 25 19 25 25
Pierre 23 25 14 19
