HURON – Aberdeen Central nearly pulled off a comeback but fell short in the final set of a five-set thriller at Huron Thursday night. The Golden Eagles dropped the first two sets before making a run, falling just shy of the victory. Huron won the Eastern South Dakota Conference volleyball match by set scores of 25-12, 25-23, 22-25, 16-25 and 15-10.

Central struggled to find its stride at the outset of the match, but rebounded in the latter stages of the night.

“We had a ton of errors and didn’t run our offense the way we typically do,” said coach Jackie Bindenagel. “It just felt like we couldn’t find any rhythm. Huron is good defensively and that frustrates teams.”

Aberdeen turned the tide in the third and fourth sets, largely from the service line.

“We started serving more aggressively in sets three and four, and our block got going,” Bindenagel said. “The good news is we see them again soon.”

Grace Kuch finished the night with a dozen kills and 19 digs. Lauryn Burckhard had 10 kills, while Ayrlie Waldo notched 21 assists and a pair of aces. Sawyer Bahr paced the defense with 21 digs, while Ashley Wangler finished with 2 solo blocks and was in on two more.

Central is home to face Pierre Saturday afternoon in its home-opening match of the season. First serve is set for 3 p.m. at Golden Eagles Arena.

Serving: Aberdeen Central 87-93 5 aces (Ayrlie Waldo 25-27 2 aces).

Hitting: Aberdeen Central 148-180 47 kills (Grace Kuch 55-64 12 kills, Lauryn Burckhard 29-40 10 kills, Taryn Nieman 21-25 7 kills).

Setting: Aberdeen Central 124-128 28 assists (Waldo 22-23 21 assists).

Digs: Aberdeen Central 68 (Sawyer Bahr 21, Kuch 19).

Blocks: Aberdeen Central 3 solo 4 assists (Ashley Wangler 2 solo 2 assisted).