ABERDEEN–For any young team, coming in to the state tournament can be a nerve-racking experience, that causes athletes to lose sleep, miss balls they would usually get to, and ultimately not perform up to their true potential.

This was the case early for the St. Thomas More Cavaliers in their opening round matchup against the Sisseton Redmen as they dropped their opening round match in four games, 25-18, 25-23, 21-25, 25-19.  Early and timely unforced errors, along with a power attack from Sisseton hitter Amber Huntington, who had 7 kills in the first game alone, left the Cavaliers down 14-3 right out of the gates.

“I told my girls that that would be understandable (first round jitters), but they had to come back,” said head coach Angela Estes, “It was just that little bit of the mental game.”

After shaking off some of the nerves, St. Thomas More did manage to steal some momentum by coming back and ending the opening game 18-25.

Head coach Cory Grimsrud said after the game that Huntington’s hot start was key in the opening set victory.  “Normally we are a slow starting team and we got up early and that was big for us.”

The second set was a much more tightly contested game as More and Sisseton traded blows, with senior Katy Freidel slamming home a kill to give St. Thomas More its first lead of the night at 10-9.  Freidel, who continued her stellar season with 11 total kills, was the anchor throughout the entire match.

For Sisseton, the second game was owned by Kalli Grimsrud, providing another option on the Redmen’s front line.  With the game seemingly over, and Sisseton leading 24-20, the Cavaliers decided to put on another late run putting the score at 24-23.  Fittingly enough however, Hutington provided a laser beam kill to end the second set, putting Sisseton up 2-0.

With their backs against the wall, and their state title hopes on the line, St. Thomas More came out swinging in the third set going up 5-2 and 7-3 on kills from Freidel and Tessa Pesicka.  The Cavs would soon see their lead disappear in a hurry, and when the bleeding finally stopped, Sisseton was up 10-8.

Danielle Nielson slammed home one of her eight kills and quickly followed it up with a service ace to knot up the score, and put the ball back in the Cavaliers’ court.  Pesicka came up big again with a block to put the Cavs up 17-14, and would add another late kill to put the score at 20-15.

After Huntington and Sisseton gave the St. Thomas More fans a scare driving the score to 23-21, Katy Freidel would again step up and close the third set with a kill that sent a resounding sound throughout the gym.

Down 2 sets to 1 and playing some of their best volleyball of the night, STM started the fourth set playing hard-nosed volleyball, but Sisseton’s talent and experience quickly showed through. Huntington once again led the way.  The Redmen put the Cavs away 25-19, and secured their spot in the Friday’s semi-finals match.

Head coach Angela Estes stressed the Cavaliers getting their rest and coming out Friday ready to play.  “We need to learn from our loss tonight and just shake it off.  We still have games that we need to prove ourselves in.”

The loss moves St. Thomas More (27-7) into the consolation bracket against the loser of Mobridge-Pollock and Elk Point-Jefferson.  The victory puts Sisseton (27-2) in the semi-finals against the winner.