VOLGA – The Sioux Valley volleyball team won its sixth-straight match on Monday night as the Cossacks swept Tri-Valley at the Cossack Center.

During this current win streak Sioux Valley won the Lake Preston Tournament over the weekend. Sioux Valley head coach Jill Vincent said she liked the way her team carried the momentum from the tournament into Monday night’s game.

“I thought we carried over our energy from the Lake Preston Tournament. We had a really good showing there and we came out with intensity from the start [on Monday] and that was nice to see,” Vincent said.

The Cossacks (13-1) lost their lone game of the season in the Big East Tournament on Sept. 12 but have bounced back in a big way with the six wins in-a-row. Vincent said she thought her team has done a good job of working together since losing to Balitc.

“I think we’re hitting with a lot of aggressiveness and [the players] have a lot of confidence in what they’re doing. They’re passing the ball better, so that makes our setters’ job a little easier and our setters keep mixing it up. We’re getting kills from all over the place so [the opponent] can’t just key in one person. It’s been a total team effort,” Vincent said.

Sioux Valley jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first set. Tri-Valley cut the lead to 11-7 but the Cossacks then scored six of the next eight points to go up 17-9. Sioux Valley then closed things out by going on an 8-4 run to win the first set 25-13.

It was 3-3 in the second set when the Cossacks went on a 7-1 run to go up 10-4. The Mustangs cut the lead to 11-7 but Sioux Valley then pushed the lead to 19-10 before eventually winning the set 25-17.

During the second set Sioux Valley senior Sunny Hesby recorded her 1,000th career assist. She finished with 13 assists on the night to lead the Cossacks and Vincent said playing closer to the net has helped Hesby rack up more assists this season.

“It’s been a little different. This year we’re playing [Hesby] in the front row and she has the opportunity to attack if she needs to and do a little bit of blocking. It has made her a step or two quicker because she’s already in the front row and is ready for the ball. So, I think she’s done a good job of getting her feet to the ball and she’s just a really hard worker,” Vincent said.

The Cossacks trailed 11-7 in the third set but then scored five-straight points to take a 12-11 lead. The two teams then traded points before Sioux Valley scored three points in-a-row to go up 21-18. The Cossacks then scored four of the next five points to win 25-19 and earned the sweep.

This was the fourth match in the last three days for the Cossacks and they’ll play another match on Tuesday night against Milbank in Volga. Vincent said it was nice for her team to earn the sweep on Monday so they wouldn’t have to use more energy before their match on Tuesday.

“We played three matches Saturday and had one day off before playing matches on Monday and Tuesday. So, it’s good conditioning, but we wanted to finish this one in three so that we could get a little bit of rest before tomorrow,” Vincent said.

The Cossacks had 26 kills as a team. They had 36 digs and 25 assists. Kaedyn Sapp led Sioux Valley with nine kills, 12 digs and four blocks. Adison Renkly had seven kills and seven digs. Caitlin Russell had nine digs and Machaela Gerasch had 10 assists. Lacey Langland had five kills and Emma Gorvin had four.

The Cossacks sit in seventh place in all of Class A and are in second place in Region 2A only behind Hamlin. Vincent said the players are starting to realize that they are one of the best teams in Class A and they’ve been building towards that.

“We always talk about the long range [success] but then you always want to stay focused on who’s up next. We set some goals last year and this year I think we’re actually going to obtain those goals. It’s been a work in progress over the past three or four years, so to see them have success this year, it’s really great,” Vincent said.