Lauren Zimmerman-CSC Sports Information
CHADRON, Neb. – Chadron State volleyball took on Black Hills State Friday night in a match which ended in the Eagles earning a reverse sweep in five sets over the Yellow Jackets. The scores were 21-25, 17-25, 25-23, 25-16, and 15-10.
The win snapped an eight-game losing streak for Chadron State. The Eagles totaled 65 kills and 93 digs to outpower the Yellow Jackets with their 55 kills and 75 digs.
For the Eagles, Kally Kirkwood and Mataya Ward led with 20 kills each while Alondra Hernandez recorded 27 digs and five service aces. Setter Kendyl Kirkwood had 40 assists in the match for CSC while Natali Keni, Bella Adams and Kally Kirkwood all had three blocks apiece.
The Yellow Jackets were led in kills by Carsyn Mettler with 18 and Abigail Renner with 17. Mettler led the Yellow Jackets with a .333 hitting percentage and only had two attack errors. Ellie Thomas led the Yellow Jackets with 21 digs.
In the first set, the Eagles came out strong with two kills from Mataya Ward and a kill from Kally Kirkwood to take a lead 3-1. The Yellow Jackets came back to eventually tie the game at three points each, but the Eagles were determined to take back the lead and won three straight points with a kill by Bella Adams, an attack error, and a block by Kally Kirkwood making the score 6-3.
The Yellow Jackets eventually took back the lead later in the set with an attack error by the Eagles, a service ace by Carson Mettler, and a kill by Sydnie Tuioti-Mariner making the score 18-15. With the score tied at 21, the Yellow Jackets took the last four points with an attack error from the Eagles, a service ace by Abigail Renner, and two kills by Carsyn Mettler to seal the first set 25-21.
At the beginning of the second set, the Yellow Jackets took the lead 4-1 with two errors from the Eagles and a service ace from Abigail Renner. The Yellow Jackets took advantage of multiple attack errors from the Eagles and led 11-5 before an Eagles timeout.
After the timeout, Kally Kirkwood came back with a big kill but the Yellow Jackets answered with another three straight points to make the score 14-6. The Yellow Jackets took the set 25-17 after two more attack errors from the Eagles. Chadron State finished the second set with 10 kills and 12 attack errors.
The Yellow Jackets got off to a lead of 3-1 in the third set, but the Eagles tied it with two kills from Mataya Ward. Within the third set, there were a total of 12 ties and five lead changes. The Eagles took their biggest lead of 12-8 with a 5-0 scoring run with kills from Kally Kirkwood and Mataya Ward, a service ace from Kiera Alfred, an attack error from the Yellow Jackets and another Ward kill.
The Yellow Jackets battled back to take a two-point advantage with a score of 23-21, but the Eagles rallied to win the next four points and the set with two kills from Natali Keni, one kill from Fujiyama, and a ball-handling error from the Yellow Jackets. The final score was 25-23.
The battle continued into the fourth set. The Yellow Jackets led 3-2 early, but the Eagles took the lead and never gave it back. Three kills from Kally Kirkwood and an attack error from Black Hills made the score 6-3. The biggest momentum boost for the Eagles came when they won eight straight points, consisting of three service aces from Alondra Hernandez, four kills from Ward, and one kill from Kendyl Kirkwood to turn a 7-6 lead into a 15-6 lead. The Yellow Jackets closed the gap to a six-point deficit at 18-12, but that wouldn’t be enough and the Eagles clinched the fourth set with a final score of 25-16.
In the deciding set, the Yellow Jackets took the lead 3-1 with a kill from Mettler, a service ace from Renner, and an error from CSC. Aiyana Fujiyama came up big for the Eagles to tie the game at four with a kill and CSC took the lead with an attack error from Black Hills. The Eagles continued their attacks by stacking on a pair of kills by Ward to give CSC the lead 8-5. The Eagles kept taking advantage of Yellow Jacket errors and completed the win with major kills from Natali Keni and Kally Kirkwood to win the final set 15-10 and clinch the match.
After Friday’s match, Chadron State is 5-18 overall and 1-10 in RMAC. The Eagles will face South Dakota Mines (14-8, 7-3 RMAC) on Saturday, November 8 at 6:00 pm in the Chicoine Center for their Senior Day.