Wildcats win over ’Diggers, Douglas

By: 
Ron Burtz
Four-set wins over Douglas and Lead-Deadwood improved the Custer girls volleyball team’s record to 7-6 over the past week but, as always, the girls struggled to gain momentum early in the matches. 
In their game before the home crowd at the Armory on Tuesday, Sept. 29, the Wildcats had an early lead in the first set but were never more than three points ahead before scoring by Douglas tied up the game at 12-12. After regaining the lead, however, Custer never looked back and kept widening it until the final score of 25-18.
Things went sideways in the second set, however, when the Patriots took an early lead and widened it to 15-7 before a serving run by Sydney Gaulke. That scoring narrowed Douglas’s lead to two points but the Pats came back strong to win the set 18-25.
“We were just not communicating very well on the court,” said co-head coach Jill Hohn, admitting poor communication is a common problem for the team. 
Hohn also said there were numerous serving and hitting errors in that set, adding that the loss wasn’t because of anything “especially great Douglas was doing.”
“We were just basically losing against ourselves at that point with all of our errors,” said Hohn.
After correcting those errors, the Wildcats came back to win the next two sets 25-16 and 26-24. The last set was a hard-fought back and forth battle to the finish in which the teams were tied eight times. Hohn admits it was a nail biter for both the fans and the coaches but she also says in many ways the last two sets were a pleasure to watch. 
“It was fun,” said Hohn. “You know, as teams you kind of go through your ebbs and flows. It was nice to see them come out here and have fun on the court and have everyone enjoy each other and do well while doing so. It was very nice to see them smile because its very hard to win if you’re not enjoying what you’re doing.”
Hohn says the win also came at an important time of the season for the team. 
“It was good for us,” said Hohn. “We needed this confidence boost after some of our last games, particularly against Sturgis and Spearfish. That’s the way we want it toward the end of the season.”
Many of the Wildcat points came in solid serving runs by Ally Cass, Laney Carlin and Gaulke. Hohn said serving has been a subject of numerous team talks over the past few weeks. 
“We talked a lot about being smart about your serves and risk over reward,” said Hohn. “There’s a time when you want to try to get an ace when you’re ahead but if you’re needing to get those consecutive points you really need to focus on getting your serves in.”
On Thursday the Wildcats traveled to Lead to face the Golddiggers and came away with their second win of the week, downing the 1-14 ‛Diggers again in four sets. 
After losing set one by three points, the ‛Cats came back with solid 25-15, 25-15 and 25-23 victories in sets two through four. 
Coaches’ comments and player stats were not available for the Lead-Deadwood game at press time. 
A homecoming week home match against Hot Springs on Tuesday was cancelled due to a coronavirus flare up in Hot Springs so the Wildcats got a bit of a break in their schedule. They will next travel to Wall to meet the Eagles on Thursday. 

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