In a volleyball tug-of-war, Aberdeen Christian made just enough plays to turn back Aberdeen Roncalli Monday night.

In a match the featured a little bit of everything, the Knights eventually claimed a 26-24, 25-20, 23-25, 23-25, 15-13 non-conference victory at the Christian School Gym.

“It was so back and forth. That was crazy,” said Christian coach Sara Powell after her squad finally emerged victorious in a contest that lasted more than two hours. “It was fun. It was intense. But it was a good time.”

Neither squad was able to gain much breathing room against the other and just when points appeared to be over, the rallies continued on.

“We had volleys that went 10 back and forth. Our girls gave everything they had,” said Roncalli assistant coach Alyssa Voeller, filling in for head coach Leesa Ware who was out of town. “I felt like the first two sets obviously, we were kind of sleeping, we were slow. But once we picked up third set, we were ready to go.”

In fact, the only real separation on the night occurred early in sets as the Knights bolted out to 5-1 leads in the first two sets, while the Cavaliers raced out to an 8-1 start in the third. Outside of that, momentum was hard to maintain.

“We knew coming into the game that it wasn’t just going to be a cake walk,” said Roncalli senior McKenna O’Keefe, “so we just all had to become one as a team and just push together, and we couldn’t let ourselves get down even if we missed a point.”

After Roncalli won the third and fourth sets, it appeared the Cavaliers might have the advantage heading into the fifth set, but it was Christian that jumped out to a 5-2 advantage.

“I’m like, you guys all need to sit down, you need to take a deep breath,” Powell told her players before the start of the final set. “Once they start getting so worked up and so excited, they start making errors, so I’m like you guys just need to regroup and you need to do one point at a time, and that’s what they did. I’m so proud of them.”

The final set was tied at 10, 11 and 13 before Christian scored the final two points for the win, match point coming on a kill by Payton Skarin.

In a match where the Knights finished with 112 total points and Roncalli accumulated 107, perhaps the biggest difference was Christian’s defense. Sophomore Brynn Powell produced multiple pancake saves, including twice on the same point where she managed to slip her hand under the ball to save a point the Knights eventually won.

“Sometimes I do get pulled back a little bit and I’m not really where I’m supposed to be,” she said, “so sometimes it’s just kind of a fast reaction, sticking my arm out there and hoping that it lands on it.”

She said she has grown accustomed to trying to make that kind of a save.

“I feel like I’ve done it a lot with club and now school,” Powell said.

The defense of the Knights drew the praise of Voeller following the match.

“They were scrappy. They didn’t have balls drop on the floor. They went after them and they got everything,” Voeller said. “That’s one thing we lacked a little bit on our side. We had balls drop. We struggled trying to get our block to the right place, so we had girls scrambling in the back row. But we adjusted and we figured that out towards the end.”

Arianna Johnson and Jolie Fogarty led the Christian victory. Johnson had four aces and 15 kills, while Fogarty had three aces and 14 kills.

O’Keefe topped Roncalli with 13 kills, and Ava Hanson contibuted 11.

Many of O’Keefe’s kills came in the third and fourth sets to help the Cavaliers level the match.

“During the third and fourth set, we changed to a 5-1, and so the sets were just more natural to me,” O’Keefe said, “what I practice more, so I started hitting the open spots.”

The match featured a unique atmosphere between players who know each other well from club volleyball.

“It was super weird to have them be on the opposing team,” Brynn Powell said, “but it was really fun to see them and see how they play.”

It marked the second time that Christian has beaten Roncalli since the two schools started playing each other. The other time was also a five-set match in 2021, when the Knights rallied from down two sets to one to claim a 15-7 win in the fifth.

Christian, 9-7 on the season, is right back in action tonight at Waubay-Summit, continuing a busy stretch of action that includes six matches in four days following a tournament last Saturday in Ipswich.

Roncalli, 4-5, heads to Sisseton on Thursday. Voeller said the Christian match will help the Cavaliers the rest of the season.

“We told the girls this is a match that makes us better,” Voeller said. “We need matches like this. To fight hard and make us play five sets. This is our first five-set match of the season.”

Serving: Aberdeen Roncalli 100-108 8 aces (Ava Hanson 15-16 2 aces, Rylee Voeller 17-19 2 aces); Aberdeen Christian (Arianna Johnson 4 aces, Jolie Fogarty 3 aces).

Hitting: Aberdeen Roncalli 168-199 (McKenna O’Keefe 39-49 13 kills, Hanson 27-33 11 kills); Aberdeen Christian (Johnson 15 kills, Fogarty 14 kills).

Setting: Aberdeen Roncalli (Maddie Huber 31 assists, Ava Danielson 5 assists); Aberdeen Christian (Sawyer Schwan 46 assists, Alexis Isakson 3 assists).

Digs: Aberdeen Roncallil 104 (Danielson 23, Rylee Voeller 21); Aberdeen Christian (Isakson 32, Payton Skarin 26).

Blocks: Aberdeen Roncalli 2 solo 10 assists (Hanson 2 solo 4 assists, Huber 2 assists, Voeller 2 assists); Aberdeen Christian (Sophia Eichler 4 solo 1 assist, Johnson 1 assist).

Records: Aberdeen Roncalli 4-5; Aberdeen Christian 9-7.