BROOKINGS — The Huron Tigers limited their errors, played excellent defense, had a great night serving and got contributions from several different players, as they posted a shutout 3-0 win over the Brookings Bobcats Thursday night in Eastern South Dakota Conference volleyball action.

Huron improves to 6-5 with the win, while the Bobcats fall to 3-9.

“I really don’t think that we did anything special in practice,” said Huron coach Josh Lien, “but I was pleased in how we came out of the gate quickly - with it being Brookings’ homecoming, and took care of business tonight.”

Completely reversing their trend of falling behind early, the Tigers exploded to a 4-0 lead to open the match, as Brynn Gose collected her first kill of the night and Hamtyn Heinz had her first ace. Heaven Gainey got a kill, Karsyn Kopfmann got one as well and when Olivia Rink went for back-to-back aces Huron was up 9-4.

The Tigers kept up the pressure on, as Emily Dale and Gose collected kills, Reese Rozell got her first ace and Gose pounded another kill down the line and Huron led by eight and cruised to the 25-13 win.

It took Huron to get rolling in the second set, as Brookings countered every run by the Tigers. Back-to-back-to back kills by Dale, a Gainey ace and a kill by Rozell staked Huron to a 9-5 lead as the Tigers were poised to put it in overdrive, but a couple of hitting errors and a kills by Gracie Adamson cut the lead to two, at 10-8.

The margin stayed at three to five points until the Tigers got a sniff of the finish line, using a pair of Dale kills and a Brookings error to go up 20-14. After trading a couple points, Huron found their stride again, as Heinz stroked an ace, Gose got a huge kill down the middle and Kopfmann found the floor with the set winner, 25-17.

“Our serving was good tonight,” Lien noted. “We asked the girls to give us their best serve when they had the chance and they did that tonight.” Huron had a total of 13 aces in the match, to only two for the Bobcats, as the Tiger defense refused to let the ball hit the floor.

Set three was close through the early portion, as Huron held a slim 9-8 lead as the midway point approached. But Gose got a big swing, then got a block kill and another big swing, before a Kopfmann kill made it 13-8 and sparked a Brookings timeout.

Things didn’t improve for the Bobcats after the break, as Gose scored, Adison Moore slipped in back-to-back aces and Kopfmann capped the rally with a kill to make it 19-11. Kills by Rozell and Dale put Huron on the brink, at 24-15, but Brookings rallied, as Tayla Dobrenski got a kill, Sarah Gannon got another and Landree Wilson connected to cut the lead to four, at 24-20.

But the Tigers regrouped, stayed in system and found Gose on the left side and she powered home her 11th kill of the night for the set and match, 25-20.

“I hate to keep saying the same thing, but the more girls we get involved the better we are and the tougher we are to defend,” Lien said. In addition to Gose’s double figures in kills, Rozell collected 10 kills and three aces on the night, Dale had nine kills - including three block kills - Kopfmann ended with seven, Gainey collected six kills and a pair of aces, Heinz had four and three aces and Moore had four aces in the match.

Adamson had seven kills to lead the Bobcats.

“I thought our back row defense was outstanding tonight,” Lien said. “That being said, as coaches, we find things we need to work on, and our positioning needs to come quicker. Our hitters all had good swings tonight - you could tell that they spent some quality time working with Coach (TyAnn) Ulmer in practice.”

Next up for the Tigers is a road trip to second-ranked Sioux Falls Washington on Tuesday.

“We’re getting better, gettin faster and I like how we are improving just a little bit each week,” Lien said. “Our goal is constant improvement and to be playing our best volleyball in November.”

Lower level matches were dominated by Brookings, as the Bobcats took the JV match 25-22 and 25-23, while also sweeping the Sophomore match, 25-16 and 25-17.

Set scores
Huron 25 25 25
Brookings 13 17 20