Fillies take third in Class B

HURON — The Mount Vernon High School volleyball team was not going down without a fight.

The Fillies took Parker’s best blows in the third-place match of the Class B state tournament.

But they never wavered.

A senior-led Mount Vernon squad regrouped after losing two of the first three sets and beat the Pheasants 25-16, 21-25, 20-25, 25-14, 15-11 at the Huron Arena.

The victory marked the sec-ond consecutive year the Fillies won the third-place match.

“We came together and we said we weren’t done,” senior setter Lexie Christensen said of her team’s huddle between the third and fourth sets. “We knew we had heart and we wanted it.

“There are seven seniors here and we’re done after this. There’s a freshman on the team, Shelby Selland, and she’s like my sister. I looked her in the eye and told her, ‘We’re not giving up, we’re not done.’ ”

Christensen, who finished with a match-high 40 assists, made sure they were not finished with 10 straight service points to start the fourth set.

“I was begging for momentum after that third set,” Mount Vernon coach Darcy Deinert said. “I don’t always change my rotation, but I thought we had something going there. Lexie was fired up and sometimes you use adrenaline in spots like that. She wanted the ball and I had to give it to her.”

After the Fillies (24-3) got to the fifth and deciding set, it was Christensen again that served a pair of aces to start it off en route to a 3-0 lead. But Parker (28-5) did not go quietly.

The final set was tied at 11 be-fore senior Myriah Beiswanger served it out for the Fillies, who finished it off in style with a set from Christensen to senior Chandra Koch for a kill down the center of the court.

“It felt amazing,” Christensen said of being a part of the final point of her prep volleyball ca-reer.

Koch, who missed last sea-son’s state tournament after injuring her knee in district play, finished her career with a 22-kill performance. Fellow senior Kel-sey Schmidt had 13 kills while junior Brittney Piper and Sel-land each added eight.

Schmidt also had 19 digs and Beiswanger had 18. Senior Lind-say Brech had 11 digs.

“Those girls always have done a good job talking to each other,” Deinert said of her senior class. “That was great to finish it out that way. Now we got to end on a happy note. Not many teams get to win their last game, and we were one.”

It was also the final match for Sara Deinert and Joslyn Bialas for Mount Vernon. Deinert had six digs and five assists while Bialas, a back-row and serving specialist, had two digs in three sets of action.

Parker was led by Jessica Kleinsasser’s 16 kills and Tessa Weeldreyer added 11. Emily Hanten recorded 33 assists for the Pheasants, whose coach, Jill Christensen, was honored be-fore the match as one of the in-ductees to the state volleyball hall of fame.

Koch and Schmidt were named to the all-tournament team. Koch had 40 kills and Schmidt recorded 23 in three matches.

Andes Central’s Brieanne Johnson also was named to the all-tournament team. She re-corded 24 kills to help the Eagles to a consolation championship.

Also on the all-tournament team were Edgemont’s Lacy Stevens, Harding County’s Laeken Stugelmeyer, Highmore-Harrold’s Holly Hamlin, Parker’s Jessica Kleinsasser, Warner’s Briana Jung and Ar-lington’s Kelsey Kaufman, Anne Jensen and Lanny Gross.

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