VOLGA – The Sioux Valley volleyball team was swept Tuesday night by Chester Area. The Flyers won the match by scores of 25-21, 25-18 and 25-22.

Chester led 7-6 in the first set when the Flyers went on a 6-0 run to make it 13-7. Sioux Valley would cut the led to 21-19, but the Flyers won four of the next six points.

The Cossacks came out hot in the second set and led 7-0. Chester would call a timeout and then the Flyers went on a 9-2 run to tie the set. The Flyers led 16-12 and Sioux Valley scored four-straight to tie it. Chester then went on a 9-2 run to win the set 25-18.

Sioux Valley head coach Jill Vincent said her team lacked confidence after giving up the lead in the second set.

“We get those quiet moments where we don’t really participate or don’t really talk to our teammates and then we’re not sure what everybody is doing. So we have those unsure moments and that’s attributed to having a young team, but we have fewer and fewer of those [moments] all the time. So we have to keep having fewer of those,” Vincent said.

The Cossacks didn’t let the second set get them down though as they played tough in the third set. Sioux Valley trailed 13-7, but rallied to make 14-13. The match was then tied three times down the stretch before the Flyers came away with a 25-22 win.

“Towards the end we build more confidence and we decided that we have to earn stuff, and be able to concentrate. In that third set we just had to play confidently and with control, and that’s what happened in the third set,” Vincent said.

Reagan Johnson led the Cossacks with seven kills and nine digs. Ashley Bjerke had 14 assists, eight digs and five kills. Adison Renkly and Keyra Kruse each had four kills each. Kaedyn Sapp had six kills and Allie Hofer had three. Julia Steffensen had 10 digs.

The Flyers were led by Lily VanHal who had 15 assists, 15 digs and four kills. Ashlynn Bleeker and Addison Bates each had eight kills. Jayda Kenyon had six kills and Emery Larson had 15 digs. Carly Becker had 11 digs and 10 assists.

Sioux Valley is now 14-15 on the season. Even with the sweep, Vincent said she is happy with how her team is playing heading into their final match of the regular season.

“We feel really good because from day one to now, we’ve improved so much. We’ve been playing our best volleyball at times, so we just have to put a really great set together all at once and we haven’t really done that yet. You always say you want to peak at the end of year and hopefully we can get that done,” Vincent said.

The Cossacks close out the regular season on Oct. 25 against Garretson. The Blue Dragons are 22-1 on the season.

“We play Garretson and they’re pretty good,” Vincent said. “They have one loss on the year and that’s to Chester. So all we can do is give it our all and improve and hope that we can get ready for regions.”