A year after losing to Central on its home floor, Stevens takes back the district title

The Raiders hoist the district championship plaque Tuesday night at Heier Gymnasium after topping the Cobblers 25-15, 25-23, 22-25, 25-18.(Photo Kevin Cox)

It was all business for Rapid City Stevens Tuesday night.

You could see it on each player’s face as they warmed up for their showdown with Rapid City Central. There was the usual high-fives as they passed a teammate in drills and constant chatter that marked the pre-game ritual of a volleyball match. But there was also a quiet, collective feeling of determination from the Raiders, as they knew this was their match for the taking.

Head coach Joshua Lien agreed.

“What we talked about tonight was to come in here with a sense of urgency. We felt like we lacked that last week against Spearfish, and luckily we got away with it. Tonight we knew we’d come here, and yep there’s energy in the building, this is an amazing atmosphere to play volleyball… But that sense of urgency is what we really focused on, where we kind of got it in our heads about 3:30 today that we wanted to win a volleyball game. I saw the same look you saw, and it was a really nice picture. They really worked differently tonight, they worked hard and they played well. I actually have no reason to complain at this point,” Lien said.

That business-like attitude was indicative in the all-around performance by Stevens, who had four players with five kills or more, and three with at least three blocks. Nearly every Central run was met with a clutch counter from the Raiders. It was evident in the way that Stevens took commanding leads in both the first two games after both teams went back-and-forth for the first few points.

The score was knotted at 9 in the first game when Stevens widened the lead to 20-12 after winning 11 of the next 14 points, culminated by consecutive kills from junior hitter Kacey Herrmann, as they took the opening game 25-15.

The second game was much more hotly contested, with neither team holding greater than a three point lead the entire game. It was 22-21 Stevens when two Central errors put the Raiders at 24, and following two Cobbler points, Carly Gerving smashed home a kill for a 25-23 second game win.

(Photos Kevin Cox)

Even when the Raiders had lapses like in the third set, they kept composed, and rallied from a 23-16 deficit to make it 24-22. The third set would go to the Cobblers 25-22, but any momentum was snatched away immediately by the Raiders.

Up 12-9, two straight aces from senior hitter Kelsey Olson stretched the lead to 14-9, and with the score 16-10, Herrmann added two more aces. A handful of points later, Herrmann’s kill off a bad return made it 24-17, and a Central error gave Stevens the game 25-18, and more importantly, punched their ticket for Aberdeen in two weekends.

“It’s a relief actually,” Lien said. “We feel like we can be a productive team at the state tournament, but we’ve always preached in our system that we’re gonna get there first. So with a win tonight, we knew we could secure a seed. It was important for us to push Central all night, and now it allows us to be a little bit relieved, so we can get in the gym tomorrow and start looking at the first-round matchups and see where we have to focus our attention on.”

After falling to the Cobblers in the same district championship match one year ago, for the joyous Raider seniors, this championship could have only come against their cross-town rivals.

“I’m just so, so excited. Last year we obviously didn’t win, and we really took that one hard. We just wanted to get back at them, and we pulled it out,” senior Summer Whillock said.

Olson gave much of the credit to their stellar hitters, Hermann and McCloud, who had 14 and 18 kills respectively, and the setter Anna Sykora, who tallied a whopping 37 assists.

“I think our passing, we worked on that all week, our serve-receive, and I think that really helped us tonight. Anna’s setting was really good, and then our hitters, Kacey and Margaret, they’re good.”

That sense of relief that Lien felt after the win was prevalent throughout the Raider celebration.

“It’s kind of like, you can take a deep breath, now we know we’re officially going, so we can work and prepare for that,” Olson said.

With the loss, Central will now have to play Mitchell in Rapid City in an elimination match to reach the state tournament.