By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek earned a berth in the semifinal round of the South Section 3A Volleyball Tournament by besting Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster 3-1 in a quarterfinal-round tilt played in the Luverne Elementary School Friday.
The fourth-seeded Patriots were under the gun after dropping the first game to No. 5 SV-RL-B, but H-BC regrouped to outscore the Raiders 45-25 the rest of the way to win 3-1.
The victory upped H-BC’s season record to 12-13 heading into Tuesday's semifinal-round match against No. 1 Southwest Christian. Look for that match story elsewhere in the sports section.
SV-RL-B ends the year with an 8-11 mark.
Tournament jitters appeared to hamper the Patriots in Game 1, but they overcame their bout with nerves to best SV-RL-B in four games.
"The girls were not focused at all in Game 1," said Patriot coach Nicole Fey. "We passed much better, we communicated much better and were much more focused as a team in the last three games."
The Raiders took advantage of H-BC's lack of focus in the opener to gain a 1-0 lead with a 15-9 win.
H-BC then turned the corner to topple SV-RL-B by 15-8, 15-6 and 15-11 counts.
Brittney Olson, Erin Boeve and Tonya Leenderts had 20, 15 and 13 digs respectively for the winners. Boeve notched a match-high 34 kills.
LaDonna Sandstede had 25 set assists and Jody Rentschler served 16 points for the winning cause.