Lauren Zimmerman-CSC Sports Information
CHADRON, Neb. – The Chadron State Eagles took on South Dakota Mines on Saturday night for their Senior Day which ended in the Eagles falling to the Hardrockers in five sets. The scores were 25-23, 25-23, 25-19, 25-21, and 15-7.
For Senior Day, the Eagles celebrated Paige Boitz, Maddison Wright, Kendyl Kirkwood, Aiyana Fujiyama, Alondra Hernandez, and Sofia Langer.
The Eagles had 54 kills and 79 digs but the Hardrockers compiled 69 kills and 90 digs for the match.
Kally Kirkwood led the Eagles with 15 kills while Mataya Ward had 11. Alondra Hernandez had a total of 25 digs. The leading scorers for the Eagles were Kally Kirkwood with 16.5 and Aiyana Fujiyama with 14.5 points.
South Dakota Mines was led in kills by Ivy Vindivich with 21 and right behind her was Alessandra Meoni with 19 who also led the Hardrockers in 23 points scored. Hannah Benes led with 26 digs, and Rachel Mau was right behind her with 22.
In the first set, the Hardrockers came out with a three-point lead with kills from Ivy Vindivich, Alessandra Meoni, and Maria Bouman. An Aiyana Fujiyama kill put the Eagles on the board for their first point of the set before a kill and block from Kally Kirkwood and a kill by Natali Keni tied the score at four.
The Hardrockers grabbed the next four points with two errors from CSC and two kills from Meoni and Jenna Curtis making the score 8-4. The Eagles came up with a three-point lead from two Hardrocker errors and a service ace by Kendyl Kirkwood to make the score 16-13. The Hardrockers came back after trailing 23-21, however, with a run of four points where they took the first set with two kills from Meoni and another by Heather Jiricek combined with an attack error by CSC to make the final set score 25-23.
CSC responded in the second set with a kill by Kally Kirkwood and a service ace from Alondra Hernandez to take an early lead of 2-0. With multiple Eagle kills, CSC took its biggest lead 12-6 with the help of kills from Natali Keni, Mataya Ward, Maddison Wright, and Aiyana Fujiyama.
The Hardrockers battled back and took a 19-17 lead, but the Eagles answered and tied the game at 23 with a couple of Hardrocker errors and a kill from Kally Kirkwood. Bella Adams pulled the Eagles ahead with a kill to set point before an attack error by the Hardrockers finished the game with a 25-23 score in favor of Chadron State.
The Eagles took their momentum into the third set taking a 3-1 lead early, but the Hardrockers soon took the lead after a run of five points to make the score 9-5. After a timeout taken by the Eagles, Chadron State kept fighting their way back, winning three straight points with a block from Kendyl Kirkwood and both a kill and a block from Fujiyama, making the score 22-18. The Hardrockers took back the momentum and eventually won the set 25-19 with one kill from Vindivich and two kills from Meoni.
The Eagles came out in the fourth set wanting a different outcome and won the first four points of the set. Two kills from Kally Kirkwood, kills from Natali Keni and Adams, and two errors from the Hardrockers gave the Eagles a 10-3 advantage.
The Eagles led by as many as 11 points at 23-12, but the Hardrockers closed the gap with a run of seven straight points, featuring three kills by Jenna Curtis. The Eagles didn’t let that stop them, however, and won the set 25-21 with a Mataya Ward kill and a service error.
In the deciding fifth set, the Hardrockers hit .500 while the Eagles hit just .095. After two ties to start the fifth set, the Hardrockers won four straight points, three of those from Meoni kills, to take a 6-2 advantage. After an Eagle timeout, South Dakota Mines hit four more kills, making their lead 10-2. South Dakota Mines eventually finished the set with two kills from Ivy Vindivich, one kill each from Jenna Curtis and Alessandra Meoni, and a CSC error. The final score was 15-7.
After Saturday’s match, Chadron State is 5-19 overall and 1-11 in the RMAC. The Eagles will play in Lakewood against Colorado Christian (15-9, 7-5 in RMAC) on Wednesday, November 13 at 6 p.m.