Hills-Beaver Creek junior setter Melinda Sandstede slips the ball past a Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster blocker during a Red Rock Conference volleyball match played in Hills Thursday.
By John Rittenhouse
The Hills Beaver Creek volleyball team battled Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster for nearly two hours in Hills Thursday before falling in a five-game Red Rock Conference match.
H-BC seemed destined to win its second consecutive match when it took Games 2 and 3 of the tilt to open a 2-1 lead, but the Raiders regrouped to win Games 4 and 5 to secure a 3-2 victory.
Game 1 of the tilt served notice that this would be a hard-fought match between two evenly-matched teams.
The teams exchanged leads in the early stages of the game, with H-BC taking an 8-7 edge with a service point from Erin Boeve. SV-RL-B then reeled off eight straight points to post a 15-8 win.
H-BC never trailed while posting a 15-9 win in Game 2.
The Patriots led 8-5 when they went on a 6-0 run consisting of three service points from Melinda Sandstede, one point and one kill from Sarah Rozeboom and one kill from Angie Sjaarda to open a 14-5 cushion.
The Raiders scored the next four points before Sjaarda served an ace to put the game away.
Another late run carried the Patriots to a 15-6 win in Game 3.
The hosts led 8-6 when Rozeboom produced three kills, Sandstede served two points, Cassi Tilstra recorded a kill and Sjaarda served a point during a 7-0 run that clinched the win for H-BC.
SV-RL-B dominated H-BC in Game 4 by outscoring the Patriots 10-2 early in the tilt before winning 15-6 in the end.
Game 5 was a tight contest that had the Patriots knotting the score at 10 with a pair of ace tips by Boeve before the Raiders put together a 5-0 run that gave them a 15-10 win.
Boeve, who was 12 of 12 serving in the match, led the Patriots with 22 kills and 20 blocks. Rozeboom and Sjaarda charted nine and six kills respectively. Kelly Mulder and Amanda Olson had six blocks each.
Rozeboom was 13 of 15 serving with two aces. Melissa Fagerness went 17 of 19 with three aces at the line.