By: Paxton Ritchie
CSC Sports Information Director
SPEARFISH, S.D. – Chadron State shook off a subpar first set and reeled off the next three, defeating Black Hills State 12-25, 25-23, 25-23, 26-24 on Tuesday night in South Dakota in the first of three meetings between the two regional rivals.
With the win in the nonconference matchup, Chadron State improves its record to 7-6, while Black Hills State falls to 6-7.
Mataya Ward led the way with 17 kills, while Kally Kirkwood joined in with 10. Ward also had a career-high four aces, breaking her old career high of three previously set in CSC's previous match last Saturday against Western Colorado.
Avery Lacy and Kali Reiners tied for the team lead with 17 digs, while Gibson Beckler added 15 and Shelby Harding a season-high 10. Reiners, featured in a story earlier today for her connections to the Chadron/BHSU rivalry, met the moment, with her 17 digs nearly doubling her previous career high of nine.
Chadron State showed impressive resilience after a difficult opening set, which saw the Yellow Jackets hit .385 while the Eagles hit just .043 with seven kills and six errors. The 25-12 set is the largest margin of any set played by CSC this season.
In winning three sets by the minimum two points after that beginning, Chadron State was able to seal the win over the Yellow Jackets despite BHSU having more kills (54-45), aces (7-4) and blocks (11-6) while Chadron State committed its most attacking errors in any match this season (25).
To win the margins, Chadron State took advantage of BH setting and service errors (13 in the match for the Yellow Jackets), won all the clutch points and relied on moments and runs of individual brilliance.
After Black Hills State won the first set, the Yellow Jackets were ahead 12-6 in the second set and threatening to run away with the match. Kally Kirkwood and Sarah Meservey hit back-to-back kills, then the two combined on a block to make it 14-10. Meservey finished with five blocks and Kirkwood four to lead the Eagles in that category.
The tide turned during a 6-0 Eagles run in which the Yellow Jackets couldn't get the ball in bounds. A service error let the Eagles serve at 17-15, BHSU, before the Yellow Jackets had four attack errors (with only one being a CSC block) plus a bad set to give the Eagles a 20-17 lead. Meservey and Kirkwood blocked to make it 24-21 before a Ward kill finished the set.
The third set started better for CSC, leading 10-4 with two kills apiece from Ward and Kirkwood, but Black Hills State battled back to tie it at 12-12. Chadron State hit .255 in the set, its best performance among Tuesday's four sets, and won enough points to take a 24-20 lead. BHSU saved three set points before Gibson Beckler used a perfect push shot to the back left corner to swing the pivotal third set in CSC's favor.
In the fourth, the two teams exchanged 3-0 and 4-0 runs and Black Hills State led 7-6 before Mataya Ward took over. A kill off a Reiners set tied it at 7-7 before Ward reeled off three aces in a four-point span, with another Reiners-to-Ward kill as the fourth point.
Black Hills State aided matters, with six service errors and four setting errors in the fourth set alone, overruling the Yellow Jackets out-hitting the Eagles .204 to .022 in the eventual final set.
Chadron State had nine kills in the fourth set, with three coming on each of the final three points of the match. With BHSU holding a 24-23 lead and one point from sending things to a tiebreaking fifth set, the Eagles received kills from Kirkwood, Ward and Ward again to flip the score to 26-24 and seal the win.
The Eagles will play their fourth match in eight days at home on Thursday when CSC takes on South Dakota Mines (9-3) in another nonconference list. First serve is set for 6 p.m.