By Joe Kavanaugh

For 605 Sports

The South Dakota Class A State Volleyball title game matched a couple of familiar foes with the Dell Rapids Lady Quarriers facing off against the Dakota Valley Panthers Saturday night at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.

Saturday’s match was also a changing of the guard as seven-time champion Sioux Falls Christian fell to Dakota Valley in Friday’s semifinals. 

The match was a rubber game of sorts at the two programs had split regular season matches.

Dell Rapid earned bragging rights along with, more importantly, a Class A State Championship as the Lady Quarriers claimed the title in four sets, 25-21, 25-23, 16-25, 25-11.

Dakota Valley had the early momentum jumping out to an early 6-1 advantage before Dell Rapids begin to whittle away at the lead finally drawing even at 16-all on a Madelynn Henry kill (many were to follow). 

The lead swapped back and forth with a Dell Rapids spurt late to close out the 25-21 set win.

“I think our girls were a little excited coming out and we just had to relax and play our game.” Lady Quarrier coach Erica Fersdahl said.  “Our defense really stepped up and had to since they are a very good team.”

Dell Rapids standout Sophi Randall (4 kills, 40 assists, 11 digs, 5 assisted blocks), a University of Illinois volleyball commit, modified that assessment a bit.

“We had a couple of mishaps in the beginning but I don’t think it was nerves but rather unforced errors,” Randall said. “We felt we would get back in the game.”

Dell Rapids hoists the Class A state trophy following their win over Dakota Valley on Saturday at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls. (Rodney Haas/605 Sports

 In what would play out as a back-and-forth through the match, Henry had 8 kills in the set while the Panthers’ Claire Munch had 7. Both would record 24 kills on the night.

The second set proved to be decisive with Dell Rapids prevailing 25-23 as again outstanding setting by Randall and the Panther’s Madelyn Munch (34 assists on the night) consistently set up big swings.

The Dell Rapids charge faltered a bit in the third set as Dakota Valley rallied back to take the set 25-16 with Claire Munch doing most of the damage with 8 kills in the set. 

“We had a couple of mishaps in the beginning but I don’t think it was nerves but rather unforced errors. We felt we would get back in the game,” Randall said. “We made some serving errors and hitting errors in that set and they finally caught up to us. We knew going into the fourth that we had to turn that around. We just talked about the mental aspect of the game. We thought it was more about us than them.”

Remedy administered as Dell Rapids cruised to a 25-21 win in the third and followed up with a dominating. 25-11 shellacking in the final set resulting in the school’s first-ever State Volleyball Championship.

“They came into the huddle after the second set and were determined to win. That’s been our goal from the beginning of the year and they came out and did it,” said a very exuberant Coach Fersdahl, a Dell Rapids native. “Volleyball started when I was in the sixth grade and they didn’t have middle school volleyball. We went to the state tournament when I was in the sixth and seventh grade. I haven’t been there again so this has been a history-making season for the school, and these girls have done everything to make the town proud of them.”

Other contributors to the Dell Rapid victory were Lauryn Kloth with 7 kills and 7 block assists and Alaina Wolff who added 3 aces along with 19 digs.

In addition to Claire and Madelyn Munch, Coryn Kimbell contributed 4 service aces and 15 digs and Samantha Kimbell had 12 digs.