Aberdeen Central aced a rare Monday night test at Golden Eagles Arena.

Central racked up 17 aces to help fuel a 25-16, 21-25, 25-14, 25-19 Eastern South Dakota Conference volleyball victory over Brookings.

Central dominated the opening set, before things got a bit interesting in the second set.

“Thankfully we settled in and our block got going and our serve got going,” said Central coach Jackie Bindenagel.

The serve was going all night for the Golden Eagles, who did major damage with short serves, catching the Bobcats off balance.

“We work on short serves every single day in practice,” said Central middle hitter Karlie Nieman.

The senior played a key role in the pivotal third-set victory. She had a kill to give the Golden Eagles an 9-6 advantage, and then proceeded to serve six straight points to put Central in control.

“That was set three,” Bindenagel said. “That gave us that huge lead.”

Nieman also did her normal damage at net, collecting a pair of assisted blocks.

“Ball setter, ball hitter is what we have learned throughout everything,” Nieman said. “We just work on that.”

Central also accumulated 81 digs in the contest with multiple players going all out for diving saves to keep the ball off the floor.

“I think we just choose to go after every ball and not let the ball drop,” said Central libero Kalli Huff. “It’s really important to keep the game going.”

Things were tight in the fourth set with Central clinging to a 17-16 lead before pulling away down the stretch to finish off the match. Central served up its 17th and final ace of the evening during that stretch.

“We do work on a lot of different serving shots,” Bindenagel said.

On this occasion the serves accomplished multiple purposes, giving Central direct points while also limiting the Brookings offense.

“It got them out of system and their setter had to scramble quite a bit,” Bindenagel said.

Alivia Miller had a solid all-around match for the Golden Eagles, finishing with 17 kills, five aces, 13 set assists, 13 digs and three assisted blocks.

Kyley Wirebaugh contributed eight kills. Camryn Albrecht led the team with six aces and and 23 set assists.

Central, 9-3 on the season, heads to Fargo, N.D., for a weekend tournament on Friday and Saturday.

“It’s nice not knowing who you’re competing with,” Huff said. “Different competition is really good. I think it’s good for us to not play teams we usually play.”

Bindenagel said the event features multiple matches in a short period of time.

“The matches are such a flurry. It’s three consecutive matches Friday night,” Bindenagel said. “We play at 5, 6 and 7, so there’s really not a lot of time to regroup and focus on another team. We just have to keep doing what we’re doing and make adjustments as we go.”

Serving: Aberdeen Central 85-93 17 aces (Camryn Albrecht 20-22 6 aces, Alivia Miller 18-19 5 aces, Julia Malsam 12-13 3 aces).

Hitting: Aberdeen Central 109-125 45 kills (Miller 28-28 17 kills, Kyley Wirebaugh 17-19 8 kills, Karlie Nieman 9-9 6 kills, Annie Bindenagel 20-22 5 kills, Lauryn Burckhard 22-31 5 kills).

Setting: Aberdeen Central 41 assists (Albrecht 23, Miller 13, Kalli Huff 5).

Digs: Aberdeen Central 81 (Burckhard 17, Huff 17, Miller 13, Malsam 13, Albrecht 10).

Blocks: Aberdeen Central 8 assists (Miller 3, Kendyl Fischer 2, Nieman 2, Wirebaugh 1).

Records: Brookings 8-13; Aberdeen Central 9-3.