HURON — The second-ranked O’Gorman Lady Knights coasted in the first two sets, but the Huron Tigers came back with hitting and serving that kept the Knights out of system before falling in four sets 25-18, 25-16, 24-26, and 25-23 Tuesday at the Huron Middle School.

“Really pleased with the play tonight,” Huron coach Josh Lien raved. “We played good Tiger volleyball.”

Hard hitting and a notable height advantage pushed the Tigers in the first set, as O’Gorman jumped out to a 5-1 lead, but a strong effort from Huron junior Aly Davis kept Huron close. After Davis nailed an ace serve, the Tigers had closed within one at 7-6.

Unfortunately, that would be as close as things would get, as Tatum Beckman took off, dominating the Tigers at the net. She would finish with eight kills in the first set as the Lady Knights cruised to a 25-18 victory.

Junior outside hitter Lauren Venenga took over in the second set for O’Gorman, nailing five kills to open the second set as the Lady Knights jumped out to a 7-2 early lead.

Huron was able to get back within two at 11-9 with multiple hitting and serving errors by O’Gorman as the Tigers were able to be aggressive with hitting and serving and keep the visitors off-balance.

Beckman’s 10th kill of the match made it 19-14 and drew a timeout from Lien, but O’Gorman went on a 4-0 run to claim the second set 25-16 and take a 2-0 match lead.

The errors forced by Huron’s play at the end of the second set keyed what Lien saw as another gear for his team.

“What I appreciated at the end of set two was the girls digging in with all they had to push in set three,” Lien observed. “Our girls were right where they needed to be blocking, our defense was truly rotational. Our kids did a great job.”

Huron’s pace forced a number of O’Gorman errors to open the third set. Addyson Knight had a pair of kills, but Huron pushed a 5-1 lead with three errors from the Lady Knights keying the early run.

A service error and a hitting error gave Huron a 12-8 lead and drew a timeout from the Lady Knights, but that’s when Venenga really came alive, and strong hitting from O’Gorman brought the score to 16-16. From that point, the two teams went back and forth, with Huron scoring on O’Gorman errors but also struggling to put away the Knights when they had a chance.

Samantha Mangmoradeth came up big after a Huron timeout with the score 21-20 in favor of the Tigers, nailing three kills in the final points as the Tigers took the 26-24 victory. In the set, the Lady Knights had 10 hitting errors and six service errors.

The visitors cleaned up their play in the fourth set, and the two teams were back and forth throughout, with the two teams tying 14 times in the scoring. O’Gorman switched from Londyn Smith to Kyra Hermanson setting, and it made a big difference. A pair of service aces from Hermanson gave O’Gorman its first multi-point lead at 14-12, drawing a Huron timeout.

The Tigers would tie at 15-15 on an Aurora Dreyer kill. Chloe Carr found an open spot on the floor to give Huron an 18-17 lead, but that’s when Venenga again took over. She nailed kills on four of O’Gorman’s next five points, and a Huron hitting error closed the match with a 25-23 set score to give the Lady Knights the 3-1 victory.

Despite the loss, Lien was very impressed with his team’s effort.

“This match could have gone one of two ways,” Lien explained. “I was pleased that we were in it to the end.”

The Knights move to 21-5 behind the play of Venenga, who finished with 19 kills and two service aces. Beckman had 13 kills, Makenzie Walsh put down 10 kills and Ruthie Robinson smacked nine kills.

Hermanson finished with three aces and three kills. Despite 15 service errors, O’Gorman was also able to score 10 service aces as a team.

The Tigers fall to 8-13. Mangmoradeth led the attack with nine kills. Aly Davis had eight kills and a pair of aces.

Dreyer and Knight each added seven kills.

In lower-level action, O’Gorman won a tough junior varsity match 25-22, 23-25, and 15-7. The Knights also took the sophomore match 15-12 and 25-17.

The Tigers will travel to Brandon Valley on Thursday.