Britton-Hecla swept Waubay-Summit but ran into some tough sledding against Aberdeen Roncalli and Groton Area, losing both in straight sets in the past week.
The Lady Braves, now 13-8, host 19-1 Hamlin on Thursday, compete in a Northwestern tournament in Mellette on Saturday, and host Great Plains Lutheran on Tuesday.
BH 25-25-25
W-S 16-16-14
Waubay-Summit battled the Lady Braves on even terms for the first half of all three sets, but the local netters took charge of each set down the stretch to earn the sweep.
“The girls got the job done in three and it was a good win for us,” said Peters.
The Lady Braves started fast, taking a 5-1 lead behind three Abby Lee kills, but the visitors cut the margin to 14-13. Then Daynika Zuehlke served seven straight points, including an ace, and Jaelee Grupe had a pair of kills and McKenna Heer one and B-H led 22-13.
Set two was a similar story. Waubay-Summit led 11-10 but the Lady Braves went on a 12-3 run to take charge again 22-14. Lee had three more kills during that stretch and Mallory Grupe added another.
The third set was tied at 10-all before the Lady Braves rattled off eight straight points behind seven service points and an ace from Maddi Micko. Jaelee Grupe and Heer both fueled the run with two kills apiece and Lee had a block for an 18-10 lead and Waubay-Summit couldn’t recover.
Lee ended up with 11 of the team’s 42 kills, Jaelee Grupe added nine and Heer eight. Heer also had three service aces and Daynika Zuehlke added two aces and contributed 26 digs.
SERVING: BH, 68-75, 8 aces (McKenna Heer 7-8, 3 aces; Daynika Zuehlke 18-21, 2 aces; Maddi Micko 18-18, 1 ace; Jaelee Grupe 10-11, 1 ace; Heather Storbakken 9-10, 1 ace)
HITTING: BH, 102-118, 42 kills (Abby Lee 18-22, 11 kills; J. Grupe 19-21, 9 kills; Heer 25-29, 8 kills; Karlie Zuehlke 17-21, 5 kills; Mallory
Grupe 11-12, 4 kills; Micko 9-10, 4 kills)
SETTING: BH, 118-118, 41 assists (Storbakken 55-55, 20 assists; J. Grupe 46-46, 17 assists; Grupe 5-5, 1 assist)
DIGS: BH, 72 (D. Zuehlke 26, Annika Tank 11, J. Grupe 9, Storbakken 9)
BLOCKS: BH, 4 (J. Grupe 2, Lee 1, Micko 1)
Roncalli 25-25-25
B-H 17-13-6
Aberdeen Roncalli had the Lady Braves’ number, dominating all three sets.
“Roncalli was not a great game for us,” noted Peters. “The girls were off and our defense couldn’t read their offense. We’ve worked on some changes on defense and hopefully that will help us this week.”
McKenna Heer had three kills and Abby Lee had three kills and three blocks to lead B-H.
SERVING: BH, 35-38, 1 ace (Maddi Micko 8-8, Heather Storbakken 7-7, Daynika Zuehlke 5-5)
HITTING: BH, 54-64, 11 kills (McKenna Heer 10-10, 3 kills; Abby Lee 12-13, 3 kills; Jaelee Grupe10-13, 2 kills; Micko 11-12, 2 kills)
SETTING: BH, 68-68, 10 assists (Storbakken 33-33, 5 assists; J. Grupe 24-24, 4 assists; Mallory Grupe 4-4, 1 assist)
DIGS: BH, 35 (Storbakken 7, Micko 6)
BLOCKS: BH, 6 (Lee 3)
Groton Area 25-25-25
B-H 18-12-19
Groton Area got off to fast starts in all three sets and the Lady Braves were not able to battle back.
In set one B-H did erase a 5-1 deficit behind kills from Maddi Micko and McKenna Heer to knot the score at 6-all, but then the Tigers went on a 9-2 run and the closest the lady Braves could get the rest of the way was five points.
GA took charge early in the second set, sprinting to a 15-4 lead behind six kills and a trio of aces. The local netters did rally to cut the margin to 16-9 on aces from Karlie Zuehlke and Heather Storbakkenm and an Abby Lee block, but the Tigers answered with seven straight points, four of them kills, to put the set away.
After another slow start and trailing 16-9, the Lady Braves made the third set interesting. Still trailing 18-13, Heer pounded a pair of kills and Jaelee Grupe served five straight points to take a 19-18 lead. But GA responded by scoring the final seven points of the match to earn the sweep.
Match statistics were not available at press time.
