USC’s Macy Sonnek goes up high for a kill against the Madelia Blackhawks in a game played on Sept. 6.

It went all the way to five sets, but in the end, it was Madelia on top of United South Central in volleyball action on Tuesday, Sept. 6.

Set scores were 27-25, 22-25, 25-15, 20-25, 15-7.

“The kids battled, but we struggled tonight and never really found our rhythm,” coach Joe Kuechenmeister said. “Madelia played scrappy and kept the ball alive and back on our side of the net. You have to really credit their effort.”

The coach added that unfortunately the Rebels responded with too many communication and setting/hitting errors.

“When we were in system, we got effective swings and terminated points, but we really struggled in serve receive and transition defensive passing as a whole so we weren’t able to be anything but one dimensional most of the match,” Kuechenmeister said. “Hard to win a match at the varsity level when that’s the case, so we need to really hone in on that part of our game.”

The Rebels were led by Chloe Lutteke who had 14 kills and five aces. Kiera Schultz had 13 kills, 12 digs, three aces and one assist. Kendal Harpestad added 12 kills, 15 digs and one block.

“A quick shout out to Chloe Lutteke who had a great night for us in the front row out of the middle in only her second varsity match,” the Rebel mentor said. “She’s really come a long ways in terms of timing and changing up her speeds to go at or around a block and that really paid off tonight as she led us in kills.”

Madison Passer added seven kills, five digs and three aces, Macy Sonnek had two kills and two digs.

Aly Stenzel had 12 digs, Paige Roberts five digs, Eleny Korn had 31 assists, one dig and one ace and Molly Wagner had 15 assists, three digs and two aces.

USC is now 0-2 (0-0 Gopher Conference) and plays again on Tuesday, Sept. 13 vs. Medford.

T/ML/GHEC 3, USC 1

The United South Central volleyball team got their season underway last week, on Thursday, Sept. 1, with a match against Truman/Martin Luther/Granada-Huntley-East Chain.

T/ML/GHEC took the match 3-1. The USC Rebels took the first set 25-20, but then lost the next three 25-15, 25-23, 25-11.

“It was a tale of what seemed like two matches for us tonight,” coach Joe Kuechenmeister said. “Always nice to get the first one out of the way because you learn so much about yourself, but we were hoping to be a bit more consistent.”

USC came out swinging in the first set and played a scrappy brand of volleyball to steal the first one 25-20, the coach related, but they couldn’t overcome their own errors the rest of the way to come out on the winning end.

Kiera Schultz led the way for the Rebels, with seven kills, eight digs, two blocks and two aces.

“Kiera has really raised her level and will be a big piece of what we’re doing both offensively and defensively throughout the course of the season,” coach Kuechenmeister said.

Kendal Harpestad had four kills, 21 digs and two aces. Madison Passer had four kills and three digs, while Chloe Lutteke had two kills and three digs.

“Kendal was all over the place defensively racking up 21 digs,” the Rebel mentor said. “Also a shout out to Molly Wegner and Chloe Lutteke for racking up a combined eight aces from behind the service line. That type of output is great to see so we’ll look for them to stay strategically aggressive.”

Wegner had four digs and four aces while Ally Stenzel had three digs. Eleny Korn had 17 assists and four digs.

“More than anything though, we need to clean up our play from top to bottom,” the Rebels coach said. “If we can do that while continuing to take high swings at the net, good things will happen.”