’Cats bury ’Diggers

By: 
Ron Burtz
Following a nerve-wracking first set, the Custer High School girls volleyball team rallied mightily to beat the Lead-Deadwood Golddiggers in three sets Tuesday, Oct. 27, to finish out the regular season with a 10-9 record. 
After a 3-3 tie in set one, the host Wildcats fought to maintain a slim lead until the ’Diggers tied it up again at 7-7. For the next several minutes it was the Golddiggers taking a one to two point lead until Custer scored to tie it up at 15 points each. The two teams continued to battle it out until the very end with ties at 15, 18, 19, 23 and 24. In the final seconds Custer scored two more points to win the set 26-24. 
Wildcat coaches Miranda Jaure and Jill Hohn admitted the game was a nerve-wracking one to watch from the sidelines. 
“I think that first set was a good, kind of, warm-up for us to get ready for the night but once we got that out of our system the girls really showed up to play, especially our seniors,” said Jaure. “They came together and worked really hard and their teamwork was really good on the court so we were very proud of them.”
Hohn said even though the final score “was a little bit too close” the Wildcats managed to make 14 kills in the first set alone. 
Before the start of the second set, the coaches said the team set a goal of keeping the ’Diggers in single digits and they almost met their objective. 
After starting off the set by trading the lead back and forth, the two teams fought to an 8-8 tie. From that point on it was Custer’s game the whole way. 
On serves by Emily Meyer, the Wildcats racked up eight points in a row bringing the score to 16-8. The ’Cats continued to dominate and extended their lead to 13 points before finally putting the Diggers away 25-12.
Jaure admits the single-digit goal was an ambitious one considering how tight the first set was but she said it kept them driving through the whole second set.
“Those girls, when they get a goal and they get focused and determined, they really come out there and show what they can do,” said Jaure.
Following that stunning victory, set three was again a bit of a nailbiter for Wildcat fans. The ‛Diggers took the lead from the first serve and after a 3-3 tie, extended their lead to three points until Custer again tied up the score at 10. Following a 13-13 tie, Custer took over the lead and never looked back. The 25-17 victory was aided by five points scored under the serving of senior Darian Block. 
While a couple of Wildcat serves went wild or into the net, Hohn said her team had “some really good serving overall.” 
Because several teams dropped out of competition this year due to COVID-19, Regions 7 and 8 are being combined for post-season play. That means Winner and Bennett County are being added into the mix of Region 7 teams vying for spots at the SoDak 16 qualifier. 
With its 40.632 seed points, Custer is being paired with St. Thomas More of Rapid City (42.103) for first round playoff action. The Wildcats will travel to STM Thursday night.
After seeing her girls battle it out with Lead-Deadwood last week Jaure said she believes the team is competitive with the Rapid City school even though they lost to them twice in the regular season. 
“These girls can go as far as they want,” said Jaure. “We’ve been telling them that all season. If they continue to work really hard next week and be focused and determined...we could definitely stay with STM.”
 

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