RAPID CITY – Herreid-Selby Area reversed its fortunes with a reverse sweep at the State B Volleyball Tournament Saturday at The Monument.
The Wolverines won a back-and-forth battle against Harding County 23-25, 23-25, 25-21, 25-23, 15-13 in the seventh place match.
“That’s the first reverse sweep in my career. These girls really worked,” said HSA coach Maria Sandmeier. “To do it at the state tournament was undeniably probably the best feeling I’ve ever experienced. I’m so proud of them. The seniors definitely led.”
The most notable senior performance was produced by Jordyn Rossow, who finished with 24 kills, six solo blocks and three assists, to go along with nine digs.
Rossow scored her team’s first six points of the fifth set, and added the final three to break at 12-12 tie and finish off the match.
While other players got a bit tentative down the stretch of the 2-plus hour match, Rossow was not about to go down without giving it her best shot.
“I just wanted to win,” Rossow said, “and I knew just from the past sets, that the things that were scoring was good on our block, getting there, and really focusing on swinging hard and finding their open spots.”
What made things interesting is that Rossow eventually rotated to the back row with the match on the line, and her teammates kept the Wolverines in the mix before the senior standout eventually made her way back to the front row.
“I know that my teammates can fill it,” Rossow said, “and I just trust that they score points, too, because we all have to be working together.”
The Wolverines finished out the season with their strongest rotation that included Breanna Jochim at the service line and Rossow manning the front row.
“It’s our best rotation with Breanna Jochim serving and Jordyn in that front line defense,” Sandmeier said. “It was the best rotation we could have ended on to get back to that.”
In fitting style, the marathon match started off on a Jochim ace.
“I think that’s always part of our game plan. We have to start off the game serving tough,” said Herreid-Selby Area senior Brooklyn Helm. “That’s why we have Breanna, our best server, serving first. She gets us started off strong. I feel like when we start off with an ace, we keep that momentum more into the game.”
In a match that featured plenty of similarities between the two teams from their nearly identical uniforms to their identical results against common opponents, it was only logical that the match would be played on near-even terms.
Both teams had chances to win every set. The Wolverines led 14-6 in the first set and later 22-20, only to fall 25-23.
“We came out confident in that first set. We got to 23 and I think we settled back a little bit and it caught us off guard when they put that ball to the floor,” Sandmeier said. “I came back from writing numbers into that huddle and I could just see in their faces it just knocked their socks off. They were not ready for it and they weren’t expecting it, so we just had this talk. And then we came out in the second set and I could still see their confidence wasn’t back.”
Herreid-Selby Area trailed 9-2 to start the second set, battled back to take another 22-20 lead, only to lose by the same exact score of 25-23.
“As soon as that happened, it was like we need to just move on, we’ve got to start anew, we’ve got to get focused on the next point,” Helm said. “We try to really keep a next-point mentality. Things don’t always go your way, so you’ve just got to move on.”
The third set was tight the whole way before the Wolverines grabbed a lead and held on to stay in the match.
It was Harding County that owned a 22-20 lead in the fourth set, only to fall by that same 25-23 margin at the end, setting the stage for the dramatic fifth set.
“I’m just proud of these seniors for leading back and staying composed, and fighting through it all,” Sandmeier said.
Rossow said she had to trust her instincts throughout the match even when she missed a few shots along the way.
“It’s a little discouraging, because it’s like oh, that’s two in a row, you know,” Rossow said, “but I just have to remember I have to trust my skills and my practice.”
It was the Wolverines’ second five-set win of the postseason, having defeated Burke 15-13 in the fifth in the SoDak 16.
It was a fitting way for the seniors go out, capping a career of memories.
“When I was a young kid,”Helm said, “I never imagined I’d be here right now.”
Serving: Harding County 13 aces (Mya Glines 6, Macey Wendt 2, Kaydence Gilbert 2, Kamry Padden 2); Herreid-Selby Area 8 aces (Alyssa Kaup 2, Jordyn Rossow 2, Katie Allbee 1, Brooklyn Helm 1, Breanna Jochim 1, Gracin Thorstenson 1).
Hitting: Harding County 48 kills (Padden 17, Wendt 11, Glines 5, Gilbert 5); Herreid-Selby Area 46 kills (Rossow 24, Jochim 14).
Setting: Harding County 46 assists (Glines 30, Padden 13); Herreid-Selby Area 44 assists (Allbee 40).
Digs: Harding County 119 (Lexy Rolph 32, Padden 27, Wendt 21, Glines 13, Kajsa Brown 11, Gilbert 10); Herreid-Selby Area 119 (Kaup 40, Allbee 26, Jochim 19, Helm 17).
Blocks: Harding County 2 solo 6 assists (Padden 2 solo, Glines 2 assists, Brayden Padden 2 assists); Herreid-Selby Area 7 solo 8 assists (Rossow 6 solo 3 assists, Jessie Johnson 3 assists).
Records: Harding County 28-6; Herreid-Selby Area 27-8.
