PHILIP The Sioux Valley volleyball team is heading to the Class A State Tournament for the first time since 2017. The Cossacks trailed Hill City 2-1 after three sets in the SoDak 16 on Tuesday night and then won the final two sets to beat the Rangers in five and punch their ticket to state.
Its kind of an unreal feeling, said Sioux Valley head coach Jill Vincent. We were going up against a good opponent and were really going to enjoy this win for the next couple of days, thats for sure.
No. 6 seeded Hill City (29-4) jumped out to a 13-6 lead in the first set and then rolled to a 25-14 victory. The 11th-seeded Cossacks (24-6) responded at the beginning of the second set though as they opened the set with an 8-3 run. They then led 13-8 and pushed the lead to 22-15 before eventually winning the set 25-17.
Vincent said she thought her team just needed settle down after the first set.
We talked all week about what [Hill City] was going to do and how they were going to hit and how things were going to look, but when you get out there on the court, then youre really taking it in, Vincent said. I feel like in that first set we were trying to get our feet wet and get used to how they were hitting and theyre tempo was really fast.
We needed to kind of take a step back and restart and make sure we were doing one thing at a time and make sure we were really doing it well and stay focused. That second set we just had a lot of focus and a lot of energy.
The Cossacks led 10-6 early in the third set. However, Hill City came back and tied the set at 15-15. The Rangers then led 22-21 and scored three-straight points to go up 25-21.
Sioux Valley led 10-9 in the fourth set. The Cossacks then went on a 6-1 run to go up 16-10. They would push that lead to 21-14 and then won the set 25-21 to set up a winner take all fifth set.
The fifth set didnt start out well for Sioux Valley as the Cossacks fell behind 4-0. They then went on a 6-1 run to gain the lead. That run turned into an 11-1 run as the Cossacks scored five more points and they led 11-5. Sioux Valley then scored four of the next six points and sealed the SoDak 16 victory.
Vincent said her team needed to get back to taking it one point at a time and thats what she stressed in a timeout before the Cossacks went on the big run.
My libero got injured in set three and we were kind of running a bit messy, I would call it. We got organized after I called timeout and we just decided that we were going to take it one ball at a time and see if we could string three points together. We slowly crawled back. I think we tied it at 5-5 and then when Elise [Lemme] started serving we got on a roll and had a couple lucky things happen and some blocks, Vincent said.
The Cossacks were led by Kaedyn Sapp who had 13 kills and 22 digs. Machaela Gerasch had 23 assists and 11 digs and Sunny Hesby had 19 assists and 10 digs. Adison Renkly had 12 kills and Caitlin Russell had 10 digs. Talya Vincent had 18 digs and Lacey Langland had 10 kills, Emma Gorvin had seven and Keyra Kruse had six.
Vincent said her team did a good job of mixing it up between players in the front row.
All night long we kept leaning on Adison and Kaedyn to get us some of those kills. They were working really hard in that front row and then every once in a while my juniors in Elise, Lacey and Emma would pick up a kill here and there. It was a really balanced attack, Vincent said.
The Rangers were led by Brooke Larsen who had 14 kills and 20 digs. Grace Peckosh had 12 kills, 16 assists and seven digs. Myah Larsen had 22 assists, seven digs and six kills.
The Cossacks will be the No. 7 seed in the Class A State Tournament and will face a familiar foe in No. 2 seeded Hamlin in the quarterfinals on Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. Sioux Valley lost in five sets to the Chargers in Hayti on Oct. 8.
Vincent said shes looking forward to sharing the experience of the State Tournament as a team and thinks the Cossacks will be ready come next week at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls.
Its always awesome when you know that your last game is going to be on the Saturday in the State Tournament and its not just going to end all of the sudden and you can have that final moment. For this group [its going to be special] to have that opportunity and get their feet wet and have the experience [of the State Tournament]. The bus ride there, staying in the hotel and being together all of the time. Im glad they get to experience this. Its once in a lifetime. Its three matches in three days. It will be a lot of thinking and a lot of focus, but I think were up for that challenge, Vincent said.
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