It’s not often that the mood is this upbeat following a home sweep.

While Aberdeen Central fell in straight sets, the Golden Eagles considered it a step of progress against perennial power Harrisburg. The Tigers won the Eastern South Dakota Conference volleyball match 25-18, 25-21, 25-11 to improved to 18-0 on the season at Golden Eagles Arena Thursday night. The 18th-ranked team in the country has now won 65 matches in a row.

“This is definitely a huge confidence boost,” said Central’s Kenadi Withers. “We stayed with them. We kept our heads up. We did pretty good and if that were any other team, we would have had the win.”

While the Golden Eagles never held the lead at any stage during the match, they didn’t go away quietly, either.

“It’s probably the best hitters we’re going to see all season, and our main focus was having a presence at the net and I thought they did that, especially in the first couple sets,” said Central coach Jackie Bindenagel. “I really happy with our play then.”

Central trailed 15-11 in the opening set before the Tigers went on an 8-3 run to take control.

The Golden Eagles faced a similar scenario in the second set, trailing 15-11 again when Harrisburg went on a 5-1 run. However, this time Central responded, eventually trimming an eight-point deficit down to three at 20-17 and later at 23-20 and 24-21 before finally succumbing.

“We were able to go on some nice runs, which is hard to do against a really good team,” Bindenagel said. “I thought there were some fantastic rallies and it was just really good volleyball to watch, especially the first two sets.”

The Tigers controlled the final set on the way to the victory, but the Central players walked away feeling a sense of accomplishment.

“They’re just an overall good team and really hard to compete with,” Withers said, “but we did really good competing with them.”

Withers did her best to keep the Golden Eagles within striking distance using a variety of hits including a cross court spike and a down the line tip.

“The spots really came from practicing. We watched a lot of film so we work on it at practice,” Withers said. “My coaches were yelling at me on the bench, where to go, so it just helps out.”

However, Central never found an answer for Harrisburg standout Gabi Zachariasen, who finished with a match-leading 19 kills.

“We did not play our best ball tonight,” said Harrisburg coach Ronette Costain, “but the kids just never stop working.”

Despite the sweep and her team’s winning streak, Constain pointed out things that her squad needs to work on for the future.

“We’re going to go back home and were going to do some videotaping of our block from behind, seeing that we’re floating out to the attena too much and letting those outside hitters have open nets,” Costain said. “That’s something we’ve kind of been working on, but we really need to break it down for the kids, and giving them a visual I think will help them.”

The match was a bit of a homecoming for Costain, who was a member of Webster’s 1989 Class B State Championship squad, playing then as Ronette Metz.

The Golden Eagles received a strong service game from Abigail DeVries, who blasted one serve after another at the Tigers.

“My thought process isn’t going back and getting an ace, it’s getting the serve over,” DeVries said. “We’ve been working a lot in practice on serving.”

The senior said she does not look to serve at any particular player.

“My goal is to just aim for the seam,” she said, “and not the person.”

Her contibution to the contest did not go unnoticed.

“I was really, really happy for the way Abby went into that match and just completely did her job,” Bindenagel said. “She was just a great spark off the bench for us.”

Kamdyn Borge led a balanced hitting attack for Central with eight kills. Withers and Lauryn Burckhard each contributed six.

The Golden Eagles, 10-5 on the season, play at Mitchell on Tuesday. Each match going forward is crucial as Central tries to build up seed points in order to host a SoDak 16 match.

“Hopefully we get a home playoff game,” DeVries said. “That’s our goal right now.”

Serving: Aberdeen Central 40-49 7 aces (Taylin Kleffman 7-8 2 aces, Abigail DeVries 10-13 2 aces, Kenadi Withers 7-7 1 ace, Maddie Sandvig 3-3 1 ace, Alivia Miller 10-11 1 ace).

Hitting: Aberdeen Central 65-78 22 kills (Kamdyn Borge 17-17 8 kills, Withers 16-18 6 kills, Lauryn Burckhard 24-32 6 kills).

Setting: Aberdeen Central 21 assists (Miller 20 assists).

Digs: Aberdeen Central 31 (Miller 10, Kleffman 9, Kennedy Osborne 5, Withers 5).

Blocks: Aberdeen Central 3 solo 2 assists (Amelia Rife 2 solo, Karlie Nieman 1 solo 1 assist, Borge 1 assist).

Records: Harrisburg 18-0; Aberdeen Central 10-5.