RAPID CITY – Nerves were replaced by frustration for the Herreid-Selby Area Wolverines on Friday.

One day after dealing with jitters during the opening round of the State B Volleyball Tournament, Herreid-Selby players had something else on their minds in a 25-22, 25-13, 25-21 setback to Parkston in consolation action at The Monument.

“Honestly, we just got in our head and we couldn’t get a grasp for the game again after that,” said HSA coach Maria Sandmeier after an official called a rotation violation on the Wolverines. “She called a setter rotation, which we’ve never been called for that position before and she called it a couple times. Our players got frustrated and that’s the epitome of the game. You get some teams frustrated and they can’t overcome that, and that’s how the outcome happens.”

Not only that, but the Wolverines were also frustrated trying to find open holes against the Parkston defense, which plays a bit of an unconventional style.

“They are very scrappy. They’re hard to score on. They have defenders from all over and they don’t have the most organized defense and they don’t go the same positions every time, but they read and they react and they’re just really hard to score on,” Sandmeier said. “They worked very hard and they definitely earned that win today.”

The Wolverines got off to a quick start and led the opening set 7-3. However, Parkston quickly responded and soon opened a 14-9 advantage.

Parkston standout hitter Keeara Oakley begin to impose her will as the Trojans won the opening set. She finished with a match-leading 17 kills.

“We know we have a tall lineup against her,” said HSA setter Katie Allbee. “We like to compete with the best. When we see that, we just see it as competition.”

The second was tight for the early stages before the Trojans broke free from a 9-7 lead and eventually took a commanding 20-11 advantage.

The third set was a battle the entire way with the score tied at 21-21. Some points lasted up to a minute in length as each squad tried to gain an edge.

“I think during that last match we were just trying to find their open spots. We were just struggling to do that. We almost got them,” said Herreid-Selby Area senior Breanna Jochim. “That’s why the (points) were so long, because we were almost getting them trying to hit their spots, and we just couldn’t hit them.”

Those drawn out points can take a toll both physicall and mentally during the course of a match.

“We condition a lot at practice so we’re ready for that. At practice we have long volleys. We’re really used to that,” Allbee said. “Some of them we didn’t come out on top, but a lot of them we did. And they’re huge momentum shifters. When you get in a long rally and win it, it’s huge momentum.”

However, nothing can kill momentum quite like an error and the Wolverines had a couple of costly ones at the end of the match as Parkston secured the victory.

“I think we were more matched offensively with Parkston,” Sandmeier said compared to top-seeded Chester Area on Thursday, but it came down to errors at the end of it, and we made more errors than they did and they overcame that.”

As a result, the Wolverines dropped their second straight match at the state tourney.

“It’s a little frustrating, but we try to stay positive as much as we can,” Jochim said, “because we know if we become negative and get down on ourselves, it will just only make it worse.”

Jochim is one of the top sprinters in the state for track and field. She compared the state volleyball tournament with the state track and field meet.

“I think there’s a little more pressure for me during track, because it’s just individual. In a race it’s eight people most of the time and everyone’s looking at you, so I just feel a lot more pressure then,” Jochim said. “Here, I just rely on my teammates, I feel like. I have more people to rely on other than just myself. I’m just confident that they’ll do their job as long as I do mine.”

Since the last time Herreid-Selby Area competed in the state volleyball tournament was 2017, none of the current players have experienced the event.

“It’s fun, especially coming from a super small school,” Allbee said. “We’ve never been to anything like this. It’s really fun and to have our crowd here and just the gym packed, it’s fun to play.”

Jordyn Rossow led the Wolverines with 15 kills. Allbee had 20 set assists, and Alyssa Kaup had a team-leading 17 digs.

Herreid-Selby Area, 26-8, will wrap up the season facing Harding County for seventh place at 11 this morning (MST).

“Coming in, it’s definitely not what we wanted, but just thinking about all the other teams that weren’t able to make it here, really just makes us excited, I guess,” Jochim said. “The past few years we’ve been trying to get here and this was our goal and we finally did it, so we’re very happy about that and (Saturday) we just want to play our best and show everyone what we can do, because these past few days it just hasn’t felt like us.”

Sandmeier is hoping there will be no more distractions when the Wolverines take the court today.

“Hopefully we have the jitters from (Thursday) and the frustration from today out of the way and just play volleyball, play together and have fun. … . If we come out in seventh, I’d be so elated for these girls,” Sandmeier said, “because they’ve worked so hard to earn this top eight position.”

Serving: Parkston 7 aces (Keara Oakley 4, Alexis Holzbauer 2, Berkley Ziebart 1); Herreid-Selby Area 3 aces (Alyssa Kaup 1, Anna Shearer 1, Katie Allbee 1).

Hitting: Parkston 31 kills (Oakley 17, Ziebart 11); Herreid-Selby Area 27 (Jordyn Rossow 15, Breanna Jochim 5, Allbee 3).

Setting: Parkston 29 assists (Finley Bogenreif 27); Herreid-Selby Area 20 assists (Allbee 20).

Digs: Parkston 81 (Addison Koehn 22, Oakley 15, Bogenreif 14, Ziebart 12, Holzbauer 10); Herreid-Selby Area 73 (Kaup 17, Allbee 14, Jochim 13, Rossow 12).

Blocks: Parkston 1 solo 2 assists (Oakley 1 solo 1 assist, Kennedy Knippling 1 assist); Herreid-Selby Area 1 solo 8 assists (Rossow 1 solo 2 assists, Breanna Jochim 2 assists, Jessie Johnson 2 assists, Alexa Secker 1 assist, McKenna Beck 1 assist).

Records: Parkston 31-7; Herreid-Selby Area 26-8.