The United South Central volleyball team took on the Martin Luther/Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman team and came away with a big 3-0 win for their first match of the season.

All three sets were fairly close. The scores were 25-18, 26-24, 25-17.

“Nice to get a win in our first outing,” coach Joe Kuechenmeister said. “It wasn’t easy tonight, but the kids hung in there and got the job done.”

The Rebels were led by Chloe Bullerman who had nine kills, seven digs, two blocks and three aces.

Kaydra Haugh had seven kills, three digs and three aces. Alivia Bruegger had six kills, two digs, one block and two aces. Reanna Obermeyer had five kills and two digs and Tatum Stangler had two kills, one dig and one assist.

“We’re a better team than how we played tonight. I think the first match jitters made our feet a little heavy, and we struggled defending offspeed rolls and tips,” Kuechenmeister said. “I credit the kids for digging in and finding a way in set 2 when we were down a match point. To overcome a little adversity this early in the season is definitely a positive.”

Other stats from the game showed Olivia Bird had eight digs, Presley Brandenburg had four digs and one ace and Izzy Bird had 23 assists, two digs and one ace.

“I thought we served well tonight and the kids executed that piece of our game plan which was nice to see,” the coach added. “Ultimately, we’ve got to do a better job of being in system, though, and maintaining a consistent offensive attack if we want to be as competitive as we know we can be.”

USC is now 1-0 (0-0 Gopher) and the Rebels play again on Tuesday, Sept. 8 in a conference showdown against the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva Panthers, at home

On Thursday, Sept. 10, the Rebels will have an away match against Randolph.