The match was not easy, but it ended in a clean sweep.

Aberdeen Central held off a pesky Huron squad 26-24, 25-15, 25-20 for an Eastern South Dakota Conference volleyball win at Golden Eagles Arena on Tuesday.

Unlike the five-set thriller the teams played back on Aug. 31 in Huron, this was a win in straight sets for the Golden Eagles to avenge that setback. Central had to work for every point against the Tigers.

Central coach Jackie Bindenagel knew her team had to attack Huron’s weak points.

“Huron’s a good team, so we just tried to hit some spots that we knew would be open and keep their setters scrambling and stay really aggressive at the net,” Bindenagel said. “We outsized them, so we wanted to get a touch up on the block and go from there.”

However, the first set proved to be an uphill climb for the Golden Eagles. Huron took an early lead and held it until after a Tiger timeout. Down 18-16, Central began to take over.

The Golden Eagles regrouped and outlasted Huron for a 26-24 set one win, taking all the momentum with them. Refocusing was something Bindenagel pointed out throughout the match.

“We just needed to refocus when we’d call those timeouts,” Bindenagel said. “I felt like we gave them quite a few points tonight, and so it was just kind of a reminder ‘Hey we’ve got to clean this up and get back on track.’”

Set two was similar to the first as Huron bolted out to a 4-0 lead before Central answered with a 7-0 run of its own. Golden Eagles middle hitter Ashley Wangler said the team needed to remember to keep working together.

“Just staying together as a team, making sure we knew what our jobs were,” Wangler said.

Central pulled away for the set two win despite multiple attempts from Huron to come back.

Bindenagel appreciated how her team fought throughout the match.

“I thought our kids did a really nice job of playing together,” Bindenagel said. “We talked about serving aggressively, and I didn’t think we were super aggressive in set one, but then we got that going in sets two and three, and kept them out of system, and we were able to run our offense.”

In set three, the Golden Eagles once again had to fight back from narrow deficits before pulling away for the win. Wangler provided the final kill, which she said was an amazing feeling.

“I was glad to just slam it down and put it in their face for our last game from them,” Wangler said.

That kill put the final touches on the revenge victory.

Wangler finished with nine kills, and gave credit to her teammates for setting her up for success.

“My setters obviously had a lot to do with that,” Wangler said. “They were just perfect, so they made the job easy.”

Bindenagel was impressed with the performance of Wangler.

“Our middles did a nice job of holding the blocks, so we had a lot of one-on-one blocks out there,” Bindenagel said. “Ashley did a nice job cutting around Huron’s block and she was just real active for us in the front row.”

Grace Kuch led Central with 10 kills and four aces. Kenadi Withers had nine kills, while Lauryn Burckhard had eight kills. Sawyer Bahr and Madison Miller each had 15 digs.

Aly Davis led Huron with six kills, while DaJai Claggett had five kills.

Next up for the Golden Eagles (7-3) is a home match on Saturday against Yankton. Wangler said the team will need to shuffle some positions around due to some injuries.

“We have a middle down for that game, so we’re going to be working this week on maybe finding some new rotations and just trying to work it out for Saturday,” Wangler said.

Bindenagel said Yankton will be an intriguing opponent.

“Yankton’s kind of a puzzle because they just swept Huron, but their record indicates that they aren’t very good,” Bindenagel said. “I think they are much, much better than their record shows, so I think it’ll be a tough match.”

Serving: Huron 53-58 7 aces (Madison Jurgens 10-10 3 aces, Hamtyn Heinz 15-17 2 aces); Aberdeen Central 73-80 9 aces (Grace Kuch 8-8 4 aces, Madison Miller 19-21 2 aces).

Hitting: Huron 71-83 20 kills (Aly Davis 21-26 6 kills, DaJai Claggett 20-25 5 kills, Heinz 6-6 4 kills); Aberdeen Central 101-113 40 kills (Kuch 31-33 10 kills, Kenadi Withers 20-24 9 kills, Ashley Wangler 18-19 9 kills, Lauryn Burckhard 23-25 8 kills).

Setting: Huron 16-17 16 assists (Heinz 16-17 16 assists); Aberdeen Central 50-51 34 assists (Ayrlie Waldo 72-72 24 assists, Emma Dohrer 19-20 6 assists).

Digs: Aberdeen Central 53 digs (Sawyer Bahr 15, Miller 15, Waldo 7, Kuch 7).

Blocks: Huron 2 blocks (Mackenzie Siemonsma 1 block, Heinz 1 block); Aberdeen Central 3 solo 4 assists (Kuch 1 solo, Wangler 1 solo, Withers 1 solo 2 assists, Taryn Nieman 2 assists).

Records: Huron 6-4; Aberdeen Central 7-3.