By Joe Kavanaugh

For 605 Sports

SIOUX FALLS — When the Hamlin Chargers and Sioux Valley Cossacks met in a Region 2A regular season contest, the match was a thriller with the Chargers needing five sets to post a victory. 

The two teams met again Thursday in Class A State Tournament action. And once more the two teams produced a doozy of a volleyball match. Five sets weren’t needed to determine the outcome, a four-set 25-15, 24-26, 25-15, 25-23 Hamlin victory, the match was imbued with plenty of excitement. 

The opening set gave an early indication of what would follow. With Hamlin leading 12-9, kills by Addie Steffensen and Addison Neuendorf keyed a five-point Charger run providing a cushion with which to close out the set comfortably, 25-15.

An easy win in progress perhaps?

Sioux Valley was having none of that overcoming an early seven-point run and a 9-2 Hamlin lead in the second set to draw even at 11-all, The surge featured a number of big swings by Kaedyn Sapp who had 18 kills in the match. 

“She is a big hitter and we knew that,” Hamlin coach Ashley Heinrich said.” She is a phenomenal athlete and volleyball player, and we were just hoping to slow her down a bit and give our defense an opportunity to step up. She obviously went on some runs where we were having a hard time but for the most part overall, we did a pretty good job of slowing her down.”

The remainder of the set was a see-saw affair with neither team able to lead by more than three points as the teams swapped three and four-point runs to draw even. Tied at 24-all, Sioux Valley closed out the set 26-24 with a spike by middle hitter, Lacey Langland. 

The third set again saw frequent lead changes until tied at 11-all, Hamlin utilized a 10/1 surge, to create separation. The run was aided by a plethora of Hamlin aces and Sioux Valley miscues. Addison Neuendorf did the heavy lifting with three kills as Hamlin coasted to a 25-15 third-set win. 

“The service line was big for us tonight,” Heinrich said. “I don’t know what our stats are as far as aces (a 17-4 Hamlin advantage), but I think we had more than they did. And we kept them off balance and out of system where they couldn’t get big swings.”

That formula continued to work early in the fourth set as Hamlin, benefitting from service aces and Neuendorf kills jumped out to a 12-4 advantage. Once again, it was Kaedyn Sapp to the rescue as the senior outside hitter contributed seven kills allowing Sioux Valley to claw back into the set finally drawing even at 21 apiece. 

Hamlin's Addison Neuendorf (3) hits a shot just over top of the net for a kill against Sioux Valley during a match in the first round of the Class A state tournament on Thursday at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls.

A couple of Addie Steffensen spikes coupled with a Cossack attack error set up match point at 24-21. Sioux Valley fought off two match points before a Issie Steffensen closed out the match. Issie Steffensen tallied 48 assists. 

Addie Steffensen led the Chargers with 20 kills while Addison Neuendorf added 19 kills. The all-round Hamlin team effort was evidenced in digs as five players had 10 or more.

In addition to Kaedyn Sapp’s 18 kills, Addison Renkly added 13 winners for Sioux Valley while Machaela Garasch led the team with 19 assists.  

Second seeded Hamlin (25-1) received a potential boost earlier in the day as top-seeded Miller fell to Sioux Falls Christian. The Chargers advanced to the 6:45 p.m. semifinal match on Friday and will face the winner of the Dell Rapid/Winner contest. 

“With that first match win, you know you are in the night bracket,” Coach Heinrich added. “And getting that first win is also a lot about nerves and a win helps settle that so we are looking forward to the next matchup no matter who it is.”

Sioux Valley (24-7) will play at lower bracket contest at 12:45 p.m.