BROOKINGS — Rapid City Central is taking it one point at a time, and it’s working.
The Cobblers played Watertown in the first round of the Class AA state volleyball tournament Thursday at Frost Arena in the opening day’s most thrilling match. The Cobblers rallied back from a first-game loss to defeat the No. 3 seeded Arrows, 19-25, 25-20, 25-23, 20-25 and 17-15.
“We came out in that fifth set and were just trying to play them point for point,” Central head coach Shelly Wolfe said. “That kind of helped us relax in the end there, because we weren’t thinking about winning, we just wanted the next point.”
Central senior Kristi Pokorney said the Cobblers were blissfully unaware of the tension in the gym as they battled back from 14-13 and 15-14 deficits in the final set.
“Lately we’ve kind of been playing point by point,” Pokorney said. “That really helped us in the last game because instead of saying, ‘Oh no, they’ve got 14 and we’re down a point,’ we just kept playing point by point and came out in the end.”
After the Cobblers and Arrows split the first four sets of the match, Watertown jumped out to an early 7-3 lead behind some great play from all-stater Marcelina Glab. But Central rallied back to tie the game at 8-8 and neither team had more than a one-point lead until Central won the match at 17-15 on a Pokorney kill.
“I don't think they were expecting us to go to her,” Wolfe said of Pokorney. “She was our shortest player on the front row at that point but, man, she’s got a wicked line hit. It worked out good.”
The Cobblers and Arrows played 10 sets in their two matches this season, with the Arrows winning the opening match of the season in Watertown in five sets.
“The motivation tonight was to go out and get a little revenge,” Wolfe said. “When that fifth set started, I thought back to the beginning of the season and losing 15-11 in the last game to (Watertown). I was thinking it's not very often that you get to right a wrong, but we got a chance tonight and we took advantage.”
The Cobblers needed every bit of effort they could muster to take advantage of that opportunity as Glab looked determined to win the fifth and final set herself. She delivered five kills, two blocks and an ace in the final game, but in the end it was the well-rounded attack of the Cobblers that won out. Central got a team-high 13 kills from Kenzie Slater, 12 from Lauren Tadlock, 11 from Pokorney and nine from Lacey Lehmann.
“We told the girls that (Glab) is going to get her 20 to 25 kills,” Wolfe said. “She just is and you can't worry about that. We just did our best to try to get a touch on her because she's really, really good.”
She was really, really good on Thursday as she finished the match with 24 kills, 14 digs, five blocks and two service aces.
Central (16-12) will play the winner of that game at about 6:45 p.m. MST. The Cobblers swept Lincoln in their two matches this season but lost to Roosevelt both times they played the Rough Riders, the defending Class AA champion.
