It was a memorable occasion for the Aberdeen Christian volleyball program on Thursday night.

The Knights recognized four senior players and then went out and defeated Faulkton for the first time in school history. Christian won the Lake Region Conference match by set scores of 25-20, 25-20, 20-25, 25-18 at the Christian School Gym.

“I just want to commemorate the seniors,” said Christian coach Sally Stoebner. “It’s awesome to end on a win for senior night, but also we’ve never beat Faulkton ever at Aberdeen Christian.”

It was serving that helped to pave the way to victory for the Knights, who racked up a dozen aces in the match, led by senior Peyton Skarin with five.

“I had a great day for serving,” Skarin said. “We serve all the time in practice for like 5-10 minutes a day. Work on spot serving. Coach Sally gives me spots to serve.”

Stoebner pointed out one spot in particular that she wanted Skarin to aim for.

“When I give her her zone, I want her to make them move. Make her move that way or make her move that way,” Stoebner said. “Right back is a really tough spot to serve receive. We struggled today passing from right back.”

Faulkton’s struggle to handle those serves, especially early in the match, put the Trojans in a hole and forced them to play from behind the whole night.

“That’s been one of our strong suits all season,” said Faulkton coach Mallory Schlechter, “so it’s just kind of bummer when one of those things that we’ve done really well for most of the season just kind of falls apart.”

Skarin, who also collected 29 digs, was able to keep the Trojans off balance with one type serve that was especially effective.

“I try and have a float serve so the ball doesn’t spin at all and it kind of curves a little bit in the air,” Skarin said, “so it makes it harder to receive.”

Senior Sawyer Schwan finished with three aces for the Knights, who received at least two aces from four different players.

“I talk about it all the time,” Stoebner said. “Serving is one of the most important skills in the game, and I thought my girls did a really nice job of it tonight.”

The Knights came out determined to win one of their final home matches of the season.

“I think we were all super excited. We had a fire lit under us that it was senior night,” Skarin said. “We wanted to win and make it a good home match.”

While Christian played with a lead in the opening two sets, the Trojans turned the tables in the third set, outscoring the Knights 7-2 to take a 19-12 advantage on the way to securing the set.

Faulkton was able to get a better handle on the Christian serves as it got back in the match.

“I think our main problem was either opening up or just moving our feet,” said Faulkton freshman Brooklyn Mueller, “but I feel like we grit our teeth and got back into our routine, and I feel like that helped us a lot.”

The two teams traded blows at the net as Ari Johnson accumulated a match-leading 24 kills to lead the Knights, while Mueller had 16 kills for the Trojans.

Johnson also had five solo blocks, but the Trojans did not back down at the net against the taller Knights.

“You’ve got to be really quick with height and it’s kind of hard, but this is what practice is for,” Mueller said. “This is what we work on in practice, so I think we did a pretty good job tonight getting up against taller players, and we have more room to improve.”

Faulkton features a lineup with just one senior on the floor, that being setter Claire Cotton, who finished with a match-leading 30 set assists.

“We are very young,” Schlechter said. “Basically our setter is our senior that plays the most, and then everybody else is a junior on down, lots of sophomores and freshmen, and even an eighth-grader that comes in.”

Anika Mueller added 10 kills for the Faulkton, which slipped to 13-5 on the season.

Jolie Fogarty contributed 10 kills for the Knights, who finished with 44 kills as a team and did not back off when they had their chances at the net.

“Sometimes it hurts us, if I’m being honest,” Stoebner said of her team’s aggressiveness, “but I thought we did a really nice job of playing it smart tonight.”

The Knights, 9-5 on the season, head to a tourney in Redfield on Saturday, before hosting Northwestern on Tuesday in their final regular-season home match of the campaign.

Serving: Faulkton 76-81 5 aces (Reagan Geditz 14-14 2 aces, Claire Cotton 19-19); Aberdeen Christian 12 aces (Peyton Skarin 5, Sawyer Schwan 3, Mia Ramirez 2, Nora Fliehs 2).

Hitting: Faulkton 131-152 32 kills (Brooklyn Mueller 40-48 16 kills, Anika Mueller 44-52 10 kills); Aberdeen Christian 44 (Ari Johnson 24, Jolie Fogarty 10, Reagan Jett 6, Sophie Glynn 5).

Setting: Faulkton 144-144 32 assists (Cotton 123-123 30 assists); Aberdeen Christian (Jacie Fogarty 23 assists, Schwan 18 assists).

Digs: Faulkton 80 (A. Mueller 22, Austina Sorensen 21); Aberdeen Christian 86 (Skarin 29, Ramirez 20, Jolie Fogarty 18, Jacie Fogarty 10).

Blocks: Aberdeen Christian (Johnson 5 solo 1 assist, Jett 4 assists, Glynn 3 assists, Jolie Fogarty 2 assists).

Records: Faulkton 13-5; Aberdeen Christian 9-5.