SPEARFISH, S.D. — The Spearfish Spartans opened the 2026 volleyball season with a test of resilience Tuesday night.
After taking the opening set and then dropping two straight, Spearfish battled back to force a decisive fifth set before pulling away from Rapid City Central for a 3-2 victory.
The Spartans defeated the Cobblers 25-19, 22-25, 22-25, 25-23 and 15-8 to begin the season 1-0. The five-set battle lasted two hours and 17 minutes.
“It’s a great way to start the season,” Spearfish head coach Shelbie Richards said. “Starting with Central is new, so you know that could go either way, and then adding it with a whole new team was another obstacle. But overall, I’m very proud of them.”
Spearfish wasted little time setting the tone.
The Spartans opened the first set on a 7-0 run before Central responded with four consecutive points. From there, the teams largely traded points, but Spearfish maintained control and built its largest advantage to eight before closing out the opening set 25-19.
Central flipped the script in the second set.
The Cobblers jumped out to a 6-1 advantage before the Spartans began working their way back into the set. Spearfish eventually put together a 6-1 run to close the gap. Both teams followed with separate 4-0 runs as momentum continued to swing back and forth, but Central made the plays it needed late to even the match with a 25-22 victory.
Spearfish again started quickly in the third set, racing out to a 6-1 lead. This time, Central answered with its biggest run of the night, using a 9-1 stretch to erase the deficit and move in front.
The Spartans responded, and the set turned into a heavyweight fight with neither team willing to give much ground. A late 3-0 Central run ultimately created enough separation for the Cobblers to take another 25-22 victory and grab a 2-1 advantage in the match.
Even after dropping consecutive sets by identical scores, Richards said she never sensed her team was ready to fold.
“In the moment last night, I never felt like it was going to be done, like the sets that we lost,” Richards said. “There wasn’t that feeling of like, ‘Oh, this one’s over.’ They just kept battling, and they were really close scores.”
With their backs against the wall in the fourth, the Spartans responded.
Spearfish and Central again traded points early before the Spartans used a 3-0 run to create some breathing room. Spearfish later found another run and stretched its advantage to as many as seven points.
Central refused to go quietly and made a late push, but the Spartans held on for a 25-23 victory to force a fifth set.
Then Spearfish finished the job.
After another back-and-forth opening to the decisive set, the Spartans scored three straight points to take a 6-3 lead. Spearfish followed with a 4-1 run and never allowed Central to regain control, finishing off the Cobblers 15-8.
The Spartans saved some of their best offensive volleyball for when they needed it most. Spearfish hit .280 in the fourth set before recording five kills without an attack error and hitting .455 in the fifth.
Julia Billington and Addie Keller led the Spearfish attack with 11 kills apiece. Billington added seven service aces and finished with a team-high 21 points, while Keller recorded 10 digs and two aces. Taylor Burry added five kills and three solo blocks, while Millie Adams finished with six kills.
Spearfish also received production from multiple players in the setter role. Piper Jacobs recorded a team-high 14 assists along with 10 digs and four aces, while Meghan Markovetz added 12 assists and seven digs. The Spartans finished the night with 39 kills, 32 assists, 18 service aces and 57 digs.
That ability to change personnel and adjust on the fly could become one of Spearfish’s strengths as the season develops.
“They’re definitely showing that they’re hungry,” Richards said. “They want to do things, and we have the flexibility, which is really cool, to be able to change things in the moment, which is really hard for anybody to do.”
Richards said the Spartans are already developing into a tight-knit group. The next challenge will be figuring out how to best utilize that versatility as Spearfish prepares for its upcoming matches in Huron.
The Spartans will face Chester, Dell Rapids, Huron and Mitchell in their next round of competition.