VOLGA — Sioux Valley was able to celebrate its senior night with a victory as the Cossacks swept Elkton-Lake Benton on Tuesday evening at the Cossack Center.

The Cossacks (22-6) had lost two straight matches coming into Tuesday night. Vincent said it was a much-needed sweep in their final regular season match.

“It was really nice to get a sweep. We haven’t done that in awhile. We’ve had a lot of big battles, so to get a win on senior night was special,” Vincent said.

It didn’t look good for the Cossacks in the first set as they fell behind 23-18. Vincent then called timeout and Sioux Valley responded with a 6-0 run to take the lead. A service error from the Cossacks made it 24-24 but then a kill and a block from Emma Gorvin gave Sioux Valley a 26-24 victory in set one.

Sioux Valley fell behind 8-5 in the second set. The Cossacks then trailed 11-8 but scored three straight to tie things up. ELB used a 4-0 run to go up 16-12 but then Sioux Valley went on an 8-1 run to go up 20-17. The Lady Elks would cut the lead to 20-19 but then a 5-0 run from the Cossacks gave them a 25-19 win in set two.

The Cossacks had less trouble in set three. They led 6-5 and went on a 7-2 run to go up 13-7. Sioux Valley then pushed the lead to 20-9 and eventually won the third set 25-13 to complete the sweep.

Vincent said she thought her team played tight in the first two sets and then started to relax in the third.

“I think we were playing a little hesitant and we just need to have confidence in what we’re doing and do our job, and then everyone can just relax and play volleyball. We played with a lot of smiles in the last set and I think that’s what we need to do. Go out there and have fun,” Vincent said.

The Sioux Valley senior class includes Sunny Hesby, Kaedyn Sapp, Adison Renkly, Keyra Kruse, Hanna Duncan and Allie Hofer.

Sapp and Renkly each had 16 kills to lead Sioux Valley. Sapp had 11 digs and Renkly had 10 digs. Hesby had 20 assists and five digs. Kruse had three kills and Duncan had four digs. Vincent said she’ll remember how hard the seniors have worked to get to this point. 

“We wanted to go out and play hard. We knew it was our last regular season game and we wanted to let the seniors remember this on their way out. I’m going to remember how much [the seniors] love volleyball. They’ve worked hard at it and have been playing for a number of years. They’re going to be missed,” Vincent said. 

Caitlin Russell had 18 digs for the Cossacks and Elise Lemme had 16 digs. Machaela Gerasch had 21 assists and 11 digs. Lacey Langland had five kills and Gorvin had four kills. 

ELB was led by Charlie Thooft and Andrea Renkly who each had eight kills. Renkly had 17 digs and Thooft had 13 digs. Malyha Slegers had 19 assists and Quinn Slegers had 15 digs. Sydney DeVries had six kills.

Each team will play in the Region 2A Playoffs next. ELB finished the season with a record of 15-13. Entering Tuesday night the Cossacks were the No. 3 seed in Region 2A and the Lady Elks were the No. 5 seed. The first round of the playoffs are on Nov. 5.

Vincent said she wants to make sure her team is ready to play in tight matches and close sets.

“We’ve been playing in a lot of close sets and I hope that we can keep doing that. Being able to have the confidence that we can push ahead and win by two points if we need to and go the distance if we need to,” Vincent said.