BROOKINGS — The Brookings Bobcats were victorious on Senior Night, picking up a sweep over the Yankton Gazelles at Brookings High School on Tuesday.

The win was big for the Bobcats, who improved to 14-15 on the season but also for seniors Morgan Norgaard, Kymber Buys, Lydia Walker, Rylee Thompson, Arielle Ferrell, Logan Smidt and Tess Burns.

“They have grown so much in the last four years,” Erinn Thomas said of her seven seniors. “They’ve stepped into new leadership roles and playing roles on the court and I am so proud of them all. It’s been a joy to coach them the past two years.”

There was more celebration on the court for the Bobcat seniors despite a back-and-forth first set. The two teams remained within a point for most of the opening frame until the Bobcats jumped ahead 19-17, had match point at 24-23 and closed for a 26-24 victory.

One of the biggest reasons for the Bobcats win was their offensive success which was extremely prevalent at the service line. Brookings had four aces in the opening set and added six more in the second set as they took the lead at 10-8, led 15-11 and closed for a 25-14 win in the second set.

“We talked about going out strong and confident in our last home match,” Thomas said about the Bobcats’ offensive success. “We saw that in our serving and in our attacking. It thought we stayed aggressive in both those areas in all three sets.”

With the match within reach, the Bobcats jumped ahead to a 10-3 lead early in the third set. After jumping ahead 16-7, Yankton made things interesting scoring five straight points after the Bobcats had match point at 24-16 but Brookings was able to put the match away to send their seniors out victorious.

Thompson led Brookings with 15 kills. Macy Even had nine kills.  Buys had seven kills and Ferrell had six kills. Burns had a pair of kills and Lydia Walker had one kill.

Buys led the Bobcats with 19 assists. Kamryn Streich had 14 assists. Even had three assists, Norgaard had two assists and Walker had one assist.

Thompson led the Bobcats with four aces. Streich had three aces. Buys, Even, Norgaard and Burns each had one ace.

Even had 12 digs. Norgaard had eight digs. Buys and Streich had seven digs each. Ferrell and Smidt had four digs each. Thompson had two digs and Burns had one.

Walker and Buys each had two blocks. Burns and Ferrell each had one block.

With another win under their belt, the Bobcats have just one more regular season match when they travel to Harrisburg on Thursday. While Thomas knows the Tigers have a strong team, she wants to see her team’s offensive success continue going into the SoDak 16.

“They are a very good team and in order to compete with them, we will have to swing and serve aggressively and take care of the ball on serve receive,” Thomas said. “We have nothing to lose.”