Rapid City Stevens Karlee Huber rips a kill in the first set Thursday night against the Central Cobblers. (Photo Jake Nordbye/IDS)

Stevens def. Central 25-18, 25-21, 25-19

Central Cobblers head coach Shelly Wolfe summed Thursday night up best, “If you look at the score you might say, ‘well, they lost again’ but we’re improving. In all three sets we did some good things. Now, we just need to learn to finish.”

Meanwhile, the Raiders are just hoping that they came away from the rivalry game without any serious injuries to their best hitters. Senior Margaret McCloud rolled her ankle in the third set. Keri Godbe, who had a monster night with 10 kills, hurt her knee in the third set. And senior middle hitter Kacey Herrmann is struggling with a back injury.

“Right now, it’s hard to focus on the game tonight. I’m a little concerned with these injuries,” said Raiders head coach Jonel Geske. “I think we’re going to be okay. The girls are getting looked at (by the trainers) and we have a week off before we play again.”

In all three sets the Raiders jumped out to big leads only to see the Cobblers come roaring back. Central rallied to tie the match or cut the margin to one point in each game, but never managed to take the lead.

In the opening game, the Raiders went up 11-3 behind the outside presence of Godbe, who finished the first set with four kills. Central fought back and cut the margin to 20-18 when Stevens Karlee Huber came up with the play of the night. McCloud hit into a Central double block and just as the ball was about to hit the floor Huber came flying in and dove to make the save. She somehow managed to get the ball over the net into space and it fell for a Raiders point. Instead of a 20-19 game, the Raiders now had a 21-18 lead. Stevens rattled off the next four points while Central struggled with assignments.

(Photos Jake Nordbye/IDS)

“We came out and were really passing well, moving around and attacking,” said Geske. “Then, it seemed like we kind of let it go once we got a big lead. That allowed them to get back into it, so that play was important for us.”

It was the same story in both the second and third games. In the second, Central battled back from a 14-5 deficit to tie at 21-21. The Cobblers were then called for crossing the net on the next point, Godbe ripped a kill to put the Raiders up by two and then confusion in the Cobbler defense led to a side out.

The Raiders scored the final four points in each of the three games.

“We have an athletic group and this performance tonight was so much better compared to our first two games against Stevens,” said Wolfe. “Herrmann and McCloud are going to get their kills, but we really did a nice job on the block tonight. Lauren Schad (Central middle hitter) is always going up against the best hitters and she did excellent tonight. But we have to finish.”

Central went down 17-12 in the third and again fought back to cut the lead to one at 20-19. Once is an accident, twice could be coincidence and three times is a pattern. In the third game, the Raiders pulled away again late. Godbe again found space with a thunderous cross-court spike. Herrmann and Godbe then combined for a double block to go up by three.

Central took a timeout, but weren’t ready for the serve coming out and Anna Sykora found the space for an ace. Defensive miscommunication led to match point for the Raiders.

Godbe led the way for the Raiders with 10 kills. Herrmann contributed six service aces and eight kills. Huber had seven kills and nine digs.

Aubrey Rypkema paced the Cobblers with six kills.

Stevens (9-1 overall) has eight days off to try and heal up before traveling to play Pierre next Friday. Central (2-8 overall) travels to play Aberdeen Central also next Friday.