Mitchell volleyball hangs tough, falls in straight sets to Huron in Kernel Bowl match
Sep. 4—MITCHELL — After dropping the first set in convincing fashion, the Mitchell High School volleyball team battled to within two points in the second and third but came up just short in a 3-0 loss to Huron on Saturday at the Mitchell High School Gym. Set scores were 25-14, 26-24 and 25-23.
"Sets 2 and 3 went, obviously, much better for us," said Mitchell coach Deb Thill. "We went on some nice runs, played some really good defense and put ourselves in a position to win both those sets."
Lizzie Tyler led the Kernels with 11 kills, adding 12 digs and one service ace, while Sawyer Stoebner had six kills and 17 digs. Jurzee Gregg put up 13 assists and two aces, both tops on the team, with Ava Brannan leading the way in digs with 18. Tianna Meadows notched three blocks, with Taylor Giblin picking up two of her own.
As a team, Mitchell recorded more than 60 digs — 61 to be exact — which Thill pointed to as "a good number" in praising her team's defensive effort against the undefeated Tigers.
"When they're in system, they're really good and they have an experienced team" Thill said of Huron. "But our defense was outstanding. Again, I felt our kids played hard the whole time ... I thought our kids played the net really well, too, so that was another positive for us."
Mitchell (3-3) is at Class AA No. 5 Pierre on Tuesday, Sept. 6 and has a home match against No. 3 Harrisburg on Thursday, Sept. 8. With the win, Huron improved to 6-0 ahead of a Tuesday match at Watertown.
"Huron is undefeated and so are Pierre and Harrisburg, so we have to be playing our best, see what we need to keep working on and keep getting better," Thill said.
