The Britton-Hecla volleyball team avenged one of its two defeats this season and added two more wins in the past week to boost its season record to 12-2.
Coach Jenna Peters’ squad defeated Milbank on Thursday in a heart-stopper 25-18, 19-25, 23-25, 25-20, 15-12 to avenge a narrow loss to the Bulldogs a week earlier in the Great Plains Lutheran Tournament. Last week Tuesday the Lady Braves rolled to a sweep over Sisseton 25-16, 25-19, 25-10.
This week the B-H netters hosted Waubay-Summit last night Tuesday, travel to Aberdeen Roncalli on Thursday, Groton Area comes to town on Monday, and B-H meets North Central in Eureka on Tuesday.
“Milbank was a heck of a win,” said Peters. “I was super proud of the girls for showing their mental toughness and persevering for the win. Sisseton was a game we wanted to win in three and the girls did just that. We’ve been making a lot of changes to get ready for some difficult teams coming up, and the girls have been handling that well and putting the team first, which is what we wanted to see at this point in the season. I’m excited for the next couple of weeks.”
B-H 25-19-23-25-15
Milbank 18-25-25-20-12
The Lady Braves battled back from a 2-1 deficit to take the final two sets and earn the win.
B-H was 94-107 from the service line with 13 aces, led by Jaelee Grupe with six and Airiana Buer with four. Maddi Micko and Grupe both pounded 12 kills as the Lady Braves had 51 kills in the match. Daynika Zuehlke came up with 25 digs and Grupe had 39 assists.
B-H 25-25-25
Sisseton 16-19-10
Britton-Hecla came up with 14 service aces and 42 kills to overwhelm Sisseton in straight sets.
Sisseton led 11-8 in the opening set before the Lady Braves took charge with a 9-1 run. Airiana Buer served three straight and Daynika Zuehlke four straight while Chellon Pruitt pounded three kills for a 17-12 lead. Tiana Tank hit back-to-back kills and Zuehlke added another down the stretch to keep Sisseton at bay.
Set two was nearly a duplicate of the opener. The Redmen led 11-8 before Buer went on a serving tear with seven straight, including a pair of aces and Zuehlke put down a pair of kills for a 16-11 advantage. Sisseton did rally to cut the margin to 16-15 but Pruitt came up with a kill and then served five straight to put the set away.
The final set was all Lady Braves. Zuehlke served a pair of aces to spark a fast 7-1 start before Sisseton narrowed the gap to 11-9, but Brynlee Schmieg got hot at the service line with seven straight and a pair of aces, Pruitt pounded three kills, and Buer had two straight aces to close out the match as B-H went on a 13-1 closing run.
Buer and Zuehlke both served five aces to lead B-H at the service line, Maddi Micko powered 13 kills and Pruitt nine, along with four blocking assists at the net. Grupe added a block and three blocking assists.
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