By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek volleyball team will take a three-match losing streak into post-season play after losing its regular-season finale in Slayton Tuesday.
Playing Murray County Central in a Red Rock Conference match, H-BC dropped three straight games to the Rebels to finish the regular season with a 10-11-3 record.
H-BC will attempt to end the skid when it opens South Section 3A Tournament play at Luverne High School Friday, Oct. 25.
Third-seeded H-BC plays No. 6 Edgerton in the second match of the night at LHS. The first match begins at 6 p.m.
The Patriots hope to have junior hitter Erin Boeve on the court for the quarterfinal-round tilt against Edgerton.
Boeve sprained her ankle during practice Monday, and was unable to compete in Slayton.
H-BC dropped 15-6, 15-5 and 15-6 games to the Rebels without Boeve, but Patriot coach Curt Doorneweerd thought his charges played well in the match.
"Overall, I was pleased with our performance," he said. "Considering the circumstances of playing a match with a new lineup against a pretty good team, I was pleased with the way things went."
Angie Sjaarda (five kills), Cassi Tilstra (three kills and three blocks), Kelly Mulder (three blocks), Sarah Rozeboom (two kills) and Amanda Olson (one block) played well at the net for H-BC.
Melissa Fagerness (nine of nine), Melinda Sandstede (seven of seven) and Sjaarda (six of six) all had perfect serving matches.