VOLGA – Chester Area closed Set 3 on a 10-1 run to stay alive and then prevailed down the stretch to win a thrilling Big East Conference volleyball matchup with Sioux Valley by the set scores of 17-25, 24-26, 25-22, 25-19 and 19-17 on Tuesday.
“I thought it was a great battle and an intense match,” said Cossack coach Jill Vincent, whose team had its 18-match winning streak snapped. “We just need to be able to come up at the end and make some big plays.”
Sioux Valley came out strong, scoring eight of the first 10 points en route to the first-set win.
The Cossacks rallied in Set 2, using a 7-2 spurt to pull even at 18-all. The score was also tied at 19, 20 and 24, before a Flyer error and a Bryn Tvedt kill gave the home team a 2-0 lead in the match.
In the third, the Cossacks scored eight consecutive points – Lynsey Stevens tallied five of her match-high 27 kills during the run – to move ahead 17-12.
Sioux Valley was on the verge of a sweep, leading 21-15; however, Chester used the key 10-1 run to get back in it.
“We really quickened up our offense and that was really clicking at the beginning,” Vincent added. “And then we kind of got a little bit back on our heels, so I think through the course of the match we started slowing down and thinking about what we were doing where we just needed to play in the flow.”
Makenna Larson notched three kills and Dakota Alfson, the Flyers’ lone senior, added two during the spurt.
The teams exchanged runs throughout the fourth set, with Chester scoring nine out of 11 points to grab a 17-15 advantage. The Flyers pulled away down the stretch to force a fifth set.
Jadon Wages’ kill tied the final frame at 3-all, and then Larson sandwiched a pair of kills around two Alfson kills. Back-to-back Cossack errors put the Flyers ahead 8-3.
The deficit was still six points – 12-6 – when Sioux Valley got things going again.
A Chester service error made it 12-7. Miakken Vincent and Nikole Ziegler teamed for a block, and Ziegler followed with a kill. A Flyer attack error let the Cossacks pull within 12-10.
Larson and Wages gave Chester its first of seven match points with consecutive kills.
Ziegler and Stevens both had a kill to keep the Cossacks in it, and two attack errors by the visitors knotted the score at 14-all.
Wages and Stevens exchanged kills – 15-15.
Wages had another kill, but Stevens and Tvedt had a block – 16-16.
Wages again came through with a kill and Stevens answered once more with one of her own – 17-17.
A Sioux Valley attack error set Chester up with its final match point as Alfson’s tip found the floor on a broken play to end it.
“We have to play in matches like this in order to get anywhere in postseason, and that’s what we need to be able to do is battle with people,” Vincent said when asked if her team can benefit from the tight match.
Alfson finished with 21 kills and three aces. Wages added 20 kills, three blocks and 27 digs. Larson totaled 15 kills and 20 digs.
Hailey Ewoldt dished out 49 set assists and Hanna Reiff came up with 51 digs. Jennilee Hoyer had 3 1/2 blocks (one solo).
For the Cossacks, Stevens added 16 digs, two aces and a block to go with the 27 kills.
Ziegler tallied 17 kills, two aces, two blocks and 19 digs. Vincent had five kills, two blocks and 15 digs. Tvedt totaled five kills and 21 digs.
Rachel Miller guided the offense with 50 set assists while adding a block and 10 digs. Bethany Rennich notched 23 digs.
Chester Area improved to 20-4, including a 7-1 mark in the BEC. The Flyers clinched a share of the regular-season title with McCook Central/Montrose (Parker is 6-1 with a home match against Howard on Monday remaining). Chester also won the BEC Tournament, beating the Pheasants in the final.
Sioux Valley dropped to 22-4 (4-3, fourth place).
The Cossacks’ winning streak began with a five-set defeat of MCM in the BEC Tournament third-place match on Sept. 9 in Chester. Their last loss was a 25-11, 25-21, 25-23 setback to the Flyers in the tourney semifinals on Sept. 7 in Garretson.
Sioux Valley, which entered Tuesday’s match with the most seed points in Region 2A, closes out the regular season playing host to winless Garretson on Monday at 7:30 p.m.
“The focus going forward is just going to be to minimize our errors,” said Vincent. “We had a lot of errors in a row. It’s been a long time, but we let them score too many points on a string. So we need to be able to get that break back and find someone who wants to have the ball in their hands at the end of the game.
“We’ve been playing with a lot of confidence, and I think we lost it a little bit and then it came back towards the end of that match. It’s good to have it from the beginning and don’t let it up.”
