Aberdeen Central had its chances but wasn’t quite able to fend off the Arrows from Watertown Tuesday night at Golden Eagles Arena.
Central fell in four sets to a Watertown squad that is receiving votes in the latest Class AA poll by set scores of 25-13, 22-25, 26-24, and 25-23 in the Eastern South Dakota Conference match.
“We knew it was gonna be a hard game. We tried our best, but in the end, we didn’t really succeed in what we were trying to accomplish,” said Central junior Alivia Miller. “But I mean, Watertown is a good team, so it happens.”
On top of playing a solid opponent, the Golden Eagles were without hitter Kamdyn Borge, but Kyley Wirebaugh was ready for her opportunity.
“It was a little nerve-wrecking, but I was happy that the coaches trusted me with that decision,” said Wirebaugh, “cause that’s obviously a very big decision and there’s a lot of great people on this team.”
The junior stepped into her role and didn’t miss a beat on the court, fitting right in with the help of her teammates.
“She did a fantastic job. She served really well, she took care of the ball. And I thought her teammates did a good job of supporting her out there,” said Central coach Jackie Bindenagel. “That’s what it takes. It’s the next man up and she did really well.”
Wirebaugh made an impact serving in the second set as she put up two aces at the beginning of the set and later had a solid serving run.
“Yeah, I didn’t know that was gonna happen. But I just went back there and just tried to keep it in play, because I didn’t want to have a lot of misserves,” said Wirebaugh. “I saw their players kind of shift around, and usually our coaches give us zones to hit and I can’t really do that, so I just try to hit wherever it goes and usually it works out.”
To start the set, the Arrows’ blocks caused Central a bit of trouble before the Golden Eagles figured out a solution.
“Their block probably caused a few more errors,” said Bindenagel. “But as the match went on, we found a way to hit around them a little bit.”
Central was able to use a balanced hitting attack, thanks in part to strong passing.
“Watertown has a really tight block, so we knew we had to spread out the balls so it would be like a one-on-one block for us so we could be successful with it,” said Miller. “It came from our good passes. Without a good pass, you can’t have a good set, so you can’t have a good kill. Without a good pass, you can’t really trick the blockers.”
After a back-and-forth third set, it appeared Watertown was going to pull away with a 22-16 lead. But the Golden Eagles got back into the set, tying it up at 24-24 forcing an extra-point set.
“I feel like it almost gives us more energy, because those plays we had, we had a lot of energy plays,” said Wirebaugh. “They didn’t fall our way … overall just going into extra points, coming back from the six-point thing that we were down in the third set takes a lot of grit and I think our team has a lot of grit.”
The fourth set was tight the entire way with neither team leading by more than three points. However, Central hurt its own cause with five service errors in that set.
“It’s just kind of a focus thing I feel like back at the service line. And sometimes you can overthink it,” said Bindenagel. “Oh, we’ve missed two serves, I gotta get this one in and then you miss it. So, finding that balance between being aggressive with it and just relaxed, and muscle memory. Just know you’ve done it a hundred, a thousand times, just go back there and execute.”
With Watertown holding a 22-19 lead in the fourth, Bindenagel called a timeout and the Golden Eagles responded with three straight points to tie the set at 22-22. Kenadi Withers scored a point, and teamed with Karlie Nieman for a block, before Miller got her name in the kill column with a dump shot to the back right corner.
“I kind of thought they’re in transition, so I was like their defense is really close up. So, I thought maybe I’ll just send it over because their corners, my coaches told and the other setter told me that that spot was open, so I was like OK, I’ll try it. And it was open,” said Miller. “It was a good feeling, cause if I’m being honest, I didn’t really expect it. I kind of thought they would get it, but I mean it worked.”
However, the visiting Arrows were able to win the next two points to close out the set and take the match.
Central, 14-10 on the season, has two matches remaining next week before heading into the postseason. The Golden Eagles are in a tight battle for the right to host a SoDak 16 match, so each contest is crucial. They will work on fixing few things before those matches.
“If we make an error, focusing on not runs of errors. Make one, fine. How are we gonna get the next ball playable?” said Bindenagel. “So, we’ll do some things to work on that in practice and see what happens.”
Serving: Aberdeen Central 71-84 5 aces (Kyley Wirebaugh 24-25 3 aces, Camryn Albrecht 14-16 2 aces).
Hitting: Aberdeen Central 109-134 41 kills (Lauryn Burckhard 43-55 16 kills, Kenadi Withers 27-35 10 kills, Wirebaugh 17-18 6 kills).
Setting: Aberdeen Central 120-121 41 assists (Alivia Miller 57-57 21 assists, Albrecht 40-41 14 assists).
Digs: Aberdeen Central 58 (Taylin Kleffman 13, Miller 12, Burckhard 10).
Blocks: Aberdeen Central 3 solo 12 assists (Amelia Rife 1 solo 4 assists, Withers 1 solo 3 assists, Burckhard 1 solo 2 assists).
Records: Watertown 19-8; Aberdeen Central 14-10.
