m notched its first win of the season when they hosted the Madelia Blackhawks on Tuesday, Sept. 3.

The Rebels came out victorious after a long, five set battle, winning 3-2. The set scores were 21-25, 25-20, 25-18, 22-25, 15-10.

“Fun to get that first ‘W’ tonight,” coach Joe Kuechenmeister said. “We have much to work on, but the kids battled through some adversity and found a way together, and it was huge to see them come through in the clutch.”

Madison Passer led the way with 17 kills, eight digs and one ace. Chloe Bullerman had 16 kills, five blocks and two aces.

Karly Koehler had 20 digs, three aces and two assists.

“Madison and Chloe had big nights for us at the net hitting,”the coach said. “Karly was stellar from the back row reading their hitters and putting her body on the line to keep the ball alive.”

Eleny Korn had 46 assists, two kills, three aces and two digs. Jaelyn Stangler and Hannah Warmka each had seven kills, with Stangler getting three blocks and Warmka one.

“Everyone did a better job of adjusting overall in comparison to last Thursday, and that was something we emphasized prior to the match.” Kuechenmeister added. “Also, we blocked better as a team and that really seemed to disrupt their hitters who went to a lot of off speed as a result.”

He added that the team still needs to find a way to quit shooting themselves in the foot with their own errors, especially hitting.

“When we trust ourselves and just play the game without hesitation, we are so much more effective all the way around and that confidence piece is going to be a big piece of any success we’ll have going forward.” he added. “All in all, we’ll take the win and keep working with another conference challenge coming up in Kenyon-Wanamingo Thursday.”

USC is now 1-1 overall and 0-0 in the Gopher Conference.

T/ML/GHEC 3, USC 0

The USC Rebels had a tough outing in their first match of the year when they faced the Truman/Martin Luther/Granada Huntley East Chain Jaguars on Thursday, Aug. 29.

The Rebels lost in three sets, 25-18, 25-16, 25-21.

“Tough first outing for us,” coach Joe Kuechenmeister said after the match. “Credit the Jaguars for playing a cleaner match than we did, as that was ultimately our undoing.”

Chloe Bullerman had nine kills, two blocks and two digs. Alivia Bruegger and Hannah Warmka each had five blocks with Bruegger also getting nine digs and an ace and Warmka getting one block.

Jaelyn Stangler had three kills, one block and one dig, Madison Passer had two kills, eight digs and two aces and Karly Koehler had 13 digs.

Eleny Korn had 21 assists, two digs and one ace.

“A huge bright spot for us was Hannah Warmka swinging from the right side as she tallied five kills for us in her first significant opportunity on the varsity court,” the coach said. “Also, freshman Chloe Bullerman coming on in sets two and three to generate nine kills and two blocks was a great starting point for this season.”

USC will travel to St. Clair on Monday, Sept. 9, to take on the Cyclones.