Kernels volleyball team cruises in opener

The Mitchell High School volleyball team recorded 17 aces in its 3-0 victory against Spearfish High School Friday night inside the newly renovated high school gymnasium.

The Kernels defeated the Spartans 25-7, 25-11 and 25-19.

“I think we played really well right away,” Mitchell coach Deb Thill said. “I think we shell-shocked Spearfish just a little bit.”

Outside hitter Sidney Neugebauer led the way with five aces, while setters Emma Schmidt and Kendra Morgan, middle hitter Taylin Alm and outside hitter Kayla Neugebauer each added three aces. Schmidt and libero Megan Farnham served 100 percent on the night, never having an error.

Thill said the team’s goal is to record two aces per set, which was easily surpassed.

“We do try to serve a lot of aces, especially since we have a lot of jump servers this year,” Thill said. “If you can keep the other team off their system and they can’t run their offense, then our servers are doing a good job. We did that.”

Thill said after Spearfish started to make adjustments, the Kernels were forced to use other outlets.

“We didn’t feel like any of their players were hitting down the line, so we adjusted to that. I thought they committed to Taylin later in the game, and I thought we did a good job at getting kills elsewhere.”

After allowing 18 points in the first two sets combined, the Kernels allowed 19 points in the final set, something Thill said the team needs to work on.

In the third set, Mitchell gave 11 points to its opponent on seven service errors and four service-receive errors.

“We had some breakdowns and communication errors,” Thill said. “(Today), we’re going to focus on not letting up and closing out the game.

“Those things are going to happen as this team tries to learn to play together and do it successfully. But overall, I was pretty happy with how we played tonight.”

Alm led the team in kills with nine, followed by middle hitter Kerri Young with seven, Schmidt recorded four and Sidney Neugebauer had three.

Morgan recorded 13 assists, while Schmidt added nine in the game.

The Kernels play again at 2:30 p.m. today, when they host Sturgis in the MHS gymnasium.

JV: 25-22, 25-23: Rachel Bucholz had four aces, two digs, two blocks, and two kills. Alison Murphy had three kills and five assists, and Kristi Anderson had five assists.

Sophomores: 25-13, 18-25, 25-15: McKenzie Kortba had six aces and four kills. Nikki Driggs had 4 kills. Anderson had 8 assists and one ace, and Brenna Morgan had seven assists and one ace.

Tags: sports, updates, volleyball, mitchell, kernels