SIOUX FALLS – They may be the lowest seed in the Class A State Volleyball Tournament, but nobody in the field has a stronger pedigree than Sioux Falls Christian Chargers.

The eight-seeded team in the field swept past top-seeded Miller 25-14, 25-17, 25-11 in the opening round at the Sanford Premier Center on Thursday morning. Christian is the three-time defending State A champion.

“We just really talk about playing our best all the time. It doesn’t matter who your are, who you’re playing or any of that,” said Christian coach Darci Wassenaar. “We just really want to take one game at a time, and play our best, and play the best volleyball that we can play.”

The Chargers jumped on the Rustlers at the start of every set, 10-3 in the first set, 9-3 in the second set, and 6-3 in the third set and forced Miller to play uphill all match long.

“Usually we are the ones that go out and start fast, and finish aggressively,” said Miller coach Linda DeBoer. “I think my kids lost a little bit of confidence as the match was going, even though we had been wanting and talking a lot about this challenge ahead, about playing these three matches and being here, and playing some of the best teams in the state. This is the challenge that we want. We just didn’t go out and play our best ball today.”

The Chargers, who faced two tough challengers just to get back to the state tournament in Elk Point-Jefferson and Baltic, were ready to go from the opening serve.

“I thought our girls came out ready to go and that was good. They were ready to execute,” Wassenaar said. “We’ve talked about that. We’ve got to be ready from point number one, and I was really happy with how our girls came out and then just continued to play hard the whole match.”

Christian had a solid block which prevented the Miller offense from getting open looks. As a result, the Rustlers had a tough time getting going on offense.

“They’re very good offensively,” DeBoer said, “and their defense, getting the ball around them at that block is pretty tough and we knew that coming in, it was a going to be a big block.”

Miller junior Jolie Palmer said the Rustlers, who had only lost one match the entire season, just needs to have confidence going forward.

“We know what we have done so well to get us here,” Palmer said, “and we just need to do the same exact thing that we’ve worked so hard for this season, and trust our training and trust in each other and ourselves.”

Palmer noted that the Rustlers don’t see squads like Christian during the course of the season.

“These athletes train all-year round. Volleyball is their only sport for most of them,” Palmer said. “They’re quick. Their offense is quick and we haven’t seen something like that.”

As a result, the Rustlers were faced with a battle that they haven’t seen much of this season, either.

“We just tried to keep plugging away and steal points where we could. We tried to put service pressure on them, that I thought was pretty good at times,” DeBoer said. “We got them out of system quite a few times with our aggressive serving, and then we just tried to get those points in transition by keep digging that ball up, but it was an uphill battle all morning.”

Still, the Rustlers kept plugging away and gained some traction as the match wore one.

“We definitely gained some momentum at the end, because we saw what we had to do against them,” Palmer said. “We just had to learn from experience and just keep rolling with it.”

Aleah Schlechter and Kaihlyn Anderberg each had five kills to pace Miller.

The Chargers, 26-12 on the season, will continue on their quest for another state title when they face Dakota Valley in the semifinals at 5 this evening. Wassenaar knows it is a loaded class this season.

“There are so many good teams in Class A and Miller’s a great team. We’ve talked about that,” Wassenaar said. “To see the girls really step up here the last couple of weeks, and just whatever team it is, you know you’ve got to be ready and you’ve got to play your best volleyball. There’s so much good volleyball here in the state which is a lot of fun.”

The Rustlers, 28-2, will regroup and face Mount Vernon-Plankinton at 11 a.m. in consolation action today.

“We just need to reset our minds and trust in our training and in each other,” Palmer said, “that we can go back and show people what we got.”

DeBoer said the goal now is two win straight matches to close out the year.

“We just keep our eyes on the consolation championship,” DeBoer said. “We’ve got to pull two good matches together in the next two days and regroup, and get our confidence back, and play together the way that we know we can.”

Serving: Sioux Falls Christian 7 aces (Meredith Nelson 3, Addisen Barber 2); Miller 5 aces (Paige Werdel 3, Gracen Werdel, Kate Lichty 1).

Hitting: Sioux Falls Christian 38 kills (Brietta Tims 17, Camdyn Mulder 7, Rachel Dieleman 5); Miller 17 kills (Aleah Schlechter 5, Kailyn Anderberg 5, Paige Werdel 4).

Setting: Sioux Falls Christian 35 assists (Barber 28, Meredith Nelson 3); Miller 15 assists (Olivia Resel 15).

Digs: Sioux Falls Christian 63 (Chloe Bosma 26, Barber 11); Miller 38 (Jolie Palmer 10, Schlechter 9, Gracen Werdel 6).

Blocks: Sioux Falls Christian 2 solo 8 assists (Dieleman 1 solo 1 assist, Nelson 1 solo, Jayla Overman 3 assists); Miller 1 solo 4 assists (Resel 1 solo, Schlechter 2 assists, Lichty 2).

Records: Sioux Falls Christian 26-12; Miller 28-2.