BROOKINGS – Trailing 2-1 to Huron in an Eastern South Dakota Conference match on Tuesday night, the Bobcats took control early in the fourth set and rallied for a 3-2 Eastern South Dakota Conference win over the Tigers at the BHS Auxiliary Gymnasium.
Huron won the first and third sets, 25-19 and 25-12, while the ‘Cats took the second and fourth sets by identical 25-20 scores to force the fifth-set tiebreak.
The Tigers held a 2-1 edge early in the fifth before Brookings scored seven straight points.
With the Bobcats leading 8-4, the teams played the longest point of the match, with Grace Eggebrecht ending play with an emphatic kill that gave Brookings a 9-4 lead and forced a Huron timeout.
A Bobcat hitting error, followed by a kill by Mikena Moore, pulled the visitors back within three points at 9-6, and then, the teams traded points as Huron had an attack error before Hollee Niehus hammered one down to make it 10-7.
A kill by Kailee Bartels was offset by another Niehus kill for an 11-8 score, but then the ‘Cats scored the next four points to close out the match as a pair of Huron hitting errors were sandwiched around Kylie Tucker getting big at the net on two straight points.
“We really increased our mental toughness – that’s something that we talked about – we were giving them a lot of points on unforced errors on our side (of the net),” said Bobcat head coach Jodi Melius. “We needed to clean up our play and just really focus on each individual point and what we individually needed to do to make our team successful on that point.
“For us, it’s just a matter of putting together the pieces – we have experienced talent; we have kids that can play every position; we have depth at almost every position – it’s just putting those pieces together and playing a mentally tough, aggressive volleyball match from start to finish – or even a full set, from start to finish.”
Annika Johnson’s 10 kills led a balanced Bobcat attack as Tucker finished with nine; Bartels and Eggebrecht tacked on eight apiece; and Michaela Jewett added six to go along with 45 set assists and 25 digs.
Tucker had one solo block and six block assists, while Emma Hardin collected a solo block and four assists.
Megan Gilk notched 19 digs and three service aces as Johnson and Hardin finished with 15 and 14 digs, respectively.
Brookings, which improved to 1-1 overall and 1-1 in the ESD, travels to Mitchell on Saturday to face the Kernels in a 4 p.m. conference match.
“I think this is going to give us a lot of confidence going forward,” Melius said of the come-from-behind win. “We have three really tough opponents coming up in Mitchell, Harrisburg and O’Gorman – three of the top teams in the state – so I think this will give us some confidence that we can go up against a tough team; earn our points; and play solid defense, as well.”
Niehus and Kayla Schimke led the Tiger attack with 14 kills apiece while Moore added seven as Jayda Shillingstad notched 37 set assists.
Niehus tacked on two solo blocks to go along with an assist, while both Madison Pfitzer and Shillingstad each had a solo and an assist.
Havyn Heinz’ 30 digs led the defense and Isabelle Ford collected 17 as the Tigers dropped to 3-3 on the season, 1-1 in conference play.
