The fourth-rated Arrows return home to cap successful regular season against Yankton
WATERTOWN — There are so many players who have did their part in helping Watertown High School's volleyball team piece together a 24-6 regular season that concluded Thursday night with their first home match in nearly a month.
One of the most important players, however, has been 5-foot-5 setter Miranda Falconer. She is one of eight seniors who played the final home regular-season matches of their career in a 3-1 (25-22, 24-26, 25-17 and 25-15) win over Yankton in the Civic Arena.
The win nailed down a second-place finish (7-1) in the Eastern South Dakota Conference for the Arrows, who will host a SoDak 16 state-qualifying match on Thursday, Nov. 9 for a berth in the state Class AA tourney Nov. 16-18 at The Monument in Rapid City.
"Miranda has done an awesome job leading the team as the quarterback or point guard as we call it for volleyball," said Watertown head coach Rosemary Bellum. "She definitely has risen to the occasion and done an amazing job going all over the court and getting to almost every ball. She's a very determined young woman."
A quick recap of Thursday's win
It wasn't as if the Arrows, who had played 15 consecutive matches on the road since last playing at home Oct. 3 in a home victory over Sioux Falls Roosevelt, had an easy time for a Yankton team guided by first-year head coach Tayler Stacey, a 2019 WHS graduate and former Arrow standout.
Yankton entered play Thursday as the No. 14 seed in Class AA and didn't seem likely to challenge a Watertown team that is fourth-ranked and No. 4 in the seed standings. But ....
"They had a lot of momentum and positive energy going into this game. They had won nine matches in a row," said Bellum. "They've been playing well and have a great setter-hitter combination (senior setter Camille McDermott and senior outside hitter Macy Drotzmann)."
The two teams were tied at 18-18 in the first set before the Arrows closed strong for a 25-22 win. The two teams were tied again at 20 in the second set and this time it was Yankton that pulled out the 26-24 win.
Watertown, coming off a tough five-set loss to No. 1-rated and unbeaten Harrisburg on Monday, rebounded to win the final two sets.
"It was a long month but it felt good to be back in front of the home crowd again with our student section," said Falconer. "We knew Yankton was going to be competitive. They're only seeded 14th but we knew they were better than that. We knew it wasn't going to be a walk in the part and that we still had to play our game."
Added Bellum: "We were just in a funk those first two sets. We just couldn't get the energy going and find our rhythm on the court."
Tisher led Watertown with 15 kills, Thury 11, Herzog seven and Hauger six on Thursday. Drotzmann recorded 11 kills and six aces, Camryn Koletzky four kills, McDermott three aces and two kills and Ava Killer two kills for Yankton (12-14).
More: Roger Merriam's look at some of the best Arrow volleyball players since program started in 1990-91
What exactly is the Arrows' game?
The Arrows were expecting good things this season with a senior-laden squad that feature a talented group of experienced senior hitters in Eve Hauger, Emily Tisher, Carter Jurrens and Hannah Herzog as well as junior Emery Thury. Fellow seniors Addi Johnston and Paige McAreavey have become key back-row players along with junior libero Natalie Pearson.
Thury has stepped forward as the team's best hitter, but the Arrows have a balanced hitting attack that has thrived behind the distribution efforts of Falconer.
Falconer shared setting duties last fall with junior Grace Corey as part of a 6-2 offense. The duo was expected to do the same again this fall before Corey injured her knee late last spring and was forced to sit out the season. It hasn't seemed to slow down Falconer, who directed a similar offense before.
"I've ran a 5-1 in club a lot and I ran it my freshman and sophomore years," said Falconer. "The biggest transition is that I have to worry about blocking now, not just setting and playing defense. It's been different, but I like it. It's been fun."
It's been more than fun for the Arrows, with Falconer helping lead the team to a superb season with a performance that included breaking the program's all-time single-season assists record (previously held by Alexx Bayles) in the win over Gazelles.
"It's been a testament to the hitters we have on the court. They're all really quite good and any one night, one of them can be the kills leader. Emery usually ends up being the highest, but when she's not on the court the others need to step up and have," said Bellum.
"Miranda has a lot of weapons to go and she's setting records because of our arsenal. That's what makes us dangerous. We just to have one go-to person, we have four or five that are in double digits and that makes it hard for the defense to decide where the ball is going to go."
Final Volleyball Poll: Class A and B teams open postseason play this week with Class AA to follow next week
Where are the Arrows going?
Hopefully to the Class AA portion of the three-class state tournament. Pairings for the Class AA SoDak 16 pairings won't be announced after the final regular-season matches are completed on Saturday. Watertown, at the moment, is set to host Spearfish but that could change.
Either way, the Arrows should be favored.
"We just needed to end with a win over Yankton. We beat a team we were supposed to beat and made sure we locked up second place in the ESD," said Bellum.
The Arrows have done a great job beating the teams they were supposed to beat this year, losing only to perennial Minnesota state power Marshall and the other four-rated Class AA teams in South Dakota (No. 1 Harrisburg, No. 2 Sioux Falls Washington, No. 3 Sioux Falls Jefferson and No. 5 O'Gorman).
The Arrows may be 0-5 against the four other-rated AA teams in the state, but believe they are fully capable of not only making it to state but also competing for a state title.
"I think we proved Monday night that we can play with anyone," said Falconer. "We took No. 1 Harrisburg to five sets and we should have won the first set."
"We played two of the the top three teams very well, taking Harrisburg to five sets and Washington to four," added Bellum. "I think they should be nervous playing against us because we're a tough team. They have things to lose and we don't when we play against them."
Aberdeen Central Volleyball
Aberdeen Central also closed out its regular season on Thursday with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-9 and 25-13) loss to third-rated Sioux Falls Jefferson.
Emory Brosnahan and Ella Kvernmo each recorded nine kills and Mya Hejl seven for Jefferson (20-2). Brosnahan and Presley Pastian each had three aces. Pastian contributed 29 assists and 15 digs, Cora Hokenstad 23 digs and Kvernmo 16 digs. Isabel Simmons made two solo and two block assists and Brosnahan one and three.
No statistics were reported for the Golden Eagles (13-11), who also fell 3-0 (25-23, 25-17 and 25-23) to Sioux Falls Roosevelt on Tuesday.
Against Roosevelt, Sawyer Bahr tallied four aces and 15 digs, Lauryn Burckhard seven kills and seven digs, Ayrlie Waldo 18 assists and seven digs and Ashley Wangler, Kenadi Withers and Taryn Nieman four kills each.
Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on X (formerly known as Twitter) @PO_Sports or email: rmerriam@thepublicopinion.com
This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Watertown's volleyball team tunes up for postseason with victory
