NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. — While there wasn’t much the Dakota Valley High School volleyball team could do to stop the Sioux Falls Christian Chargers on Thursday night, the Panthers hope it showed them enough to for it to be a different story if the sides run into each other again.
Which seems likely.
In each of the last three seasons, DV and SF Christian have played three times during the season.
Should that happen, the Panthers will have to put an end to a trend that saw the Chargers take all three matches in each of those first two seasons and DV win all three last year, capped off by a thrilling five-set victory in the Class A state tournament semifinals.
On Thursday, each set inched closer to a DV win, but the Chargers held the Panthers off for the three-set sweep (25-16, 25-23, 26-24) at Dakota Valley High School on Thursday in Dakota XII Conference play.
“(Sioux Falls Christian) is a really good team,” said DV head coach Michael Whittlef. “But a match like this shows us that we still have a lot to work on.”
Class A No. 3-ranked DV (12-1) pushed the third frame to set point when an ace serve by Reagen Headid made it 24-22 Panthers, but the Class A No. 2 Chargers (12-4) scored four of the last five points to close it out, capped off by an ace from sophomore Jayla Overman to win it.
“We knew coming in this would be a tough match,” said SF Christian head coach Darci Wassenaar. “DV has a great group of girls who really push us. We love their girls and we’ve really pushed each other as teams over the past few years. We knew we’d have to come out ready to go, and I’m really proud of our girls for coming out and executing really well.”
Like the first two sets, DV played from behind but hung close in Set 3 despite the Chargers getting out to a 5-1 lead in the third.
The Panthers pulled slightly ahead late in the set, and held a 20-18 advantage after a kill by senior Samantha Kimbell, who’s committed to current NAIA top-two ranked Concordia (Neb.).
But SF Christian answered with a dump shot by setter Meredith Nelson to pull it to 20-19 DV, then the Chargers took a 22-21 lead on kill by junior Camdyn Mulder.
DV senior Claire Munch, a University of Northern Iowa recruit, led the match with 18 kills to go with 13 digs, two blocks and an ace. She had six in the third set, and nearly every one of them pulled the Panthers to within a point or two of the Chargers, who played with a lead nearly all night, save for a few points in each of the last two sets.
A kill by Samantha Kimbell late in Set 2 gave DV an 18-17 lead but after trading points, SF Christian pulled ahead when a kill by Overman made it 21-20 Chargers and then won it on a kill by Tavyn Sichmeller.
DV junior setter Madelyn Munch finished with 27 assists, two aces and eight digs and junior libero Coryn Kimbell went for 16 digs.
Nelson, a junior, had 33 assists, three aces and three kills for the Chargers and the senior Sichmiller had a team-high 16 kills.
“We did a good job all night of spreading it around on our attack,” said Wassenaar. “We have a lot of capable hitters out there, and a number of them stepped up tonight for us. Having a balanced attack is a big strength of ours.
“There was a great crowd here, it was really loud, but I thought our girls handled the noise well.”
Love
0
Funny
0
Wow
0
Sad
0
Angry
0
Get in the game with our Prep Sports Newsletter
Sent weekly directly to your inbox!
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Ryan Timmerman
Sports editor
Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!
Your notification has been saved.
There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Followed notifications
Please log in to use this feature
Log In
Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today