HILL CITY, S.D. — After a challenging weekend against strong competition at the Huron Invitational, the Spearfish Spartans returned to the court Tuesday night looking to put the pieces together.
They took a significant step forward.
Spearfish swept the Hill City Rangers in three sets, 25-10, 25-20 and 25-7, on Tuesday, Sept. 1, in Hill City. The victory improved the Spartans to 2-4 on the season and gave a team still working to establish its best lineup some momentum heading into another tournament weekend.
“This was a really good win going into the weekend,” Spearfish head coach Shelbie Richards said.
Hill City scored the first two points of the opening set, but Spearfish quickly took control with an 8-0 run.
After the teams traded points, the Spartans put together another big stretch, scoring seven consecutive points to build an 18-5 advantage. Hill City managed a run of its own late in the set, but Spearfish had already created too much separation and closed out the opener with a 25-10 victory.
The second set was much tighter.
Spearfish and Hill City largely traded points before the Spartans began to create separation. With a four-point advantage, Spearfish found another gear and eventually stretched its lead to nine at 23-14.
The Rangers battled back late, but the Spartans held on for a 25-20 victory to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Any momentum Hill City generated late in the second set disappeared quickly in the third.
Spearfish jumped ahead 2-0 before putting together a 10-1 run that helped push the advantage to 15-6. The Spartans then slammed the door with another 10-1 run to finish off a dominant 25-7 third-set victory and complete the sweep.
The performance was an encouraging response after Spearfish went 0-4 at the Huron Invitational. Instead of allowing the difficult weekend to linger, the Spartans returned to the fundamentals while continuing to search for the lineup combinations that will put them in the best position moving forward.
“We just gotta go back to the fundamentals of who Spearfish is,” Richards said. “It’s, ‘we’re hard on you, you’re busting your tail,’ those little things. We need them to know we mean business, just like coming down on how we respond. This group could be really, really good if we keep putting the puzzle pieces together.”
Some of those puzzle pieces appeared to fit Tuesday night.
Spearfish finished with 23 kills on 55 attacks and a .218 hitting percentage. The Spartans were especially effective from the service line, finishing with 16 aces.
Addie Keller led the Spartans with seven kills on 18 attacks while adding three aces and six digs. Julia Billington attacked aggressively throughout the match, putting down five kills and leading Spearfish with four aces.
Layla Meredith added five kills, while Finley Bouman made the most of her opportunities with three kills on five attacks and a team-best .600 hitting percentage.
The Spartans also continued working different setters into the lineup as they look for combinations that can maximize their hitters. Piper Jacobs led Spearfish with 12 assists, while Meredith added nine. Spearfish finished with 22 assists as a team.
Defensively, Taylor Burry recorded three total blocks, Bouman added two and the Spartans finished with six total blocks and 26 digs.
Tuesday’s win didn’t mean Spearfish has completely solved its lineup yet, but it offered another glimpse of what the Spartans can become as the pieces continue to come together.
The Spartans travel to Gillette for the Gillette Invitational this weekend.