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PIERRE, S.D. -- The Mitchell High School volleyball team put together a strong effort but ended up on the wrong end of a three-set sweep to No. 4 Pierre on Tuesday night in Eastern South Dakota Conference action.
Set scores were 25-22, 25-19 and 25-15 in favor of the Governors.
“I thought we played better than we did on Saturday, which was one of our main goals,” Mitchell coach Deb Thill said. “We did a good job with our serve-receive game and keeping some plays alive. … There were some really encouraging things about the way we played.”
Mitchell led 21-19 in the first set but conceded six of the final seven points, with Pierre taking advantage of a few Kernel errors. In the second set, Mitchell cut the Pierre lead down to 16-14 only to see Pierre get on a 9-5 run to close out the set.
Mitchell built its largest lead of the night in the third frame, leading 13-8 and forcing Pierre to burn both timeouts in the first 20 points of the set. But the Governors got on another big run and outscored MHS 17-2 for the rest of the set to close out the match.
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“We just let them get too many runs going, and then in the third set, they had two runs that we just couldn’t come back from,” Thill said. “I think that’s something we’re going to get better at handling the more we play.”
Mitchell had eight kills and 12 digs from Sawyer Stoebner, while Lizzie Tyler had seven kills and 12 digs. Taylor Giblin added four kills. Jurzee Gregg had 11 assists and two aces, and Claire Hegg had two aces.
Averie Kaiser had a strong effort to pace Pierre, posting 19 kills for the Governors in the win.
Mitchell (3-4, 0-3 ESD) will now face No. 2-ranked Harrisburg on Thursday, Sept. 8 at the MHS Gym. After facing Huron and Pierre, Mitchell will face three consecutive undefeated opponents who are a combined 20-0.
Pierre (6-0, 3-0 ESD) takes on Sturgis on Friday as part of a West River weekend series with the Scoopers and Spearfish.
