The Lady Patriots punched their ticket to the State VB tournament by sweeping the Herried-Selby Wolverines in straight sets on Tuesday night in Mellette.
In the first set, the Patriots jumped out to an early lead and sustained it most of the set. The ladies took the first set by a score of 25-17.
In set two, the two teams played back and forth as the Patriots could not get much of run going. The Wolverines made a run at the end, but the Patriots prevailed by a score of 25-22.
The third set was close early before the Patriots gained some separation on the Wolverines. The Patriots held a 9 point lead, before Herried-Selby would make one last run to close the gap. That prompted a time-out from Coach Opp. After the time-out, Cora Hofer came up with a big kill. The Wolverines scored three more points until Lila Johnson put the ball down for the winning point and the Patriots took the set by a score of 25-21,
Leading the way offensively for the Patriots was Katelyn Schroeder with 21 kills. Rebecca Huizenga added 6 kills, Cora Hofer recorded 5 kills, Lila Johnson and Isabel GIlbert each had 5 kills, and Ella Johnson rounded out the scoring by recording 2 kills.
Lila Johnson recorded 23 assists on the night and Gracyn Bixler came up with 15.
The serving was not as crisp as the previous match. The Patriots missed 11 serves, while recording 8 aces. Gilbert tallied 3 of the aces. Schroeder and Ella Johnson each tallied 2 each.
Defensively, the Patriots had some great digs in the back row and good blocks in the front. Cambree Hoekman led the team with 21 digs, Schroeder followed with 17, and Lila Johnson added in 11. There was one block assist on the night and that was recorded by Gilbert and Lila Johnson.
The Patriots move to 31-2 on the season and will carry a #3 seed into the State Tournament next week in Sioux Falls. They will play the #6 seed Gayville-Volin Raiders at 6:45 p.m at the Denny Sanford Premier Center. The Patriots would like to thank everyone for all the support and encouragement. We hope to see a large and loud crowd in Sioux Falls next weekend for some great volleyball and to cheer the ladies on!