Kernels pick up third win in back-and-forth match

In a back-and-forth match, the Mitchell Kernels volleyball team defeated the Watertown Arrows 3-1 Thursday night inside the Mitchell High School gymnasium.

Set scores were 25-23, 23-25, 25-19, 25-22.

“I like the way our kids played defensively, and I thought we did a very nice job of backing each other up,” said Mitchell coach Deb Thill, whose team is now 3-1 and bounced back nicely after losing its first match of the year Tuesday to Aberdeen .

Outside hitter Emma Schmidt had eight kills, 14 digs and tossed over two aces, going 20-of-20 at the serve, while libero Megan Farnham had 22 digs and also went 100 percent on serving, going 17-of-17.

Mitchell also got a big game from senior setter Kendra Morgan, who recorded 40 assists, six digs and four blocks on the night.

The Kernels had leads in all four sets. But the Arrows fought back with runs to make the first, second and fourth sets each a battle.

“We saw how important it is to not give up the runs,” Thill said. “We had big leads in set one and set two, but we struggled with serve receive.

“If you’re going to let somebody serve five or six times in a row, you’re going to let them right back in.”

The Kernels rallied after dropping set two and fixed the service receive errors in the third set.

“Set three we didn’t have that problem and it showed in the score,” Thill said.

The fourth set was tied at 22 before the Kernels went on a 3-0 run to end the match.

“In set four, we had a couple of communication errors that let them in and get some momentum and a big run, but we were able to pull it out in the end,” Thill said.

Thill said the players on the floor continued to accelerate their play as the match progressed.

“We have a pretty good bench and we’re pretty deep,” Thill said. “We even have a few kids that didn’t get to play tonight that could’ve stepped in at any time as well.”

Middle-hitter Taylin Alm led the Kernels in kills with 17 and added three blocks, while middle-hitter Kerri Young recorded 10 kills and tallied four blocks.

Outside-hitter Sidney Neugebauer had 13 digs and three aces.

The Kernels are back in action at 7 p.m. Thursday when they host Brandon Valley at the high school gymnasium in another Eastern South Dakota Conference matchup.

JV: 13-25, 11-25: Rachel Bucholz had three digs, and Miranda Goldammer recorded three kills

Sophomores: 18-25, 14-25: Ally Goldammer had three blocks and three kills. Mckenzie Kortba recorded three aces.

Freshman A: 30-28, 19-25

Freshman B: 14-25, 13-25

Tags: sports, updates, mitchell, kernels, volleyball