Presley Brandenburg (6) receives a serve while Alivia Bruegger looks on. United South Central lost two tough matches last week and now have a 4-3 record overall with a 2-2 Gopher Conference record.

Although they played well, the United South Central Rebel volleyball team just could not get over a tough Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Buccaneer team, and lost 3-1.

The scores of the sets at the match played at WEM on Tuesday, Sept. 22, were 25-18, 25-23, 22-25, 29-27.

The scores show that the Rebels were in every set and needed just a bit more to have pulled off a victory.

“Big time turnaround in our level of play tonight as we competed much better against a traditionally tough Bucs team in a raucous, playoff like, atmosphere,” coach Joe Kuechenmeister said. “The kids battled well, we just couldn’t close out set four when we had momentum and a couple of opportunities.”

Chloe Bullerman led the way for the Rebels with 22 kills, five digs, three blocks and four aces.

Alivia Bruegger had 11 kills, five digs, one block, one assist and one ace. Meanwhile, Tatum Stangler had seven kills and two digs, and Kaydra Haugh and Reanna Obermeyer each had six kills, with Haugh adding eight digs, one assist and one ace and Obermeyer adding seven digs and one assist.

“I give WEM a lot of credit for serving us out of system at big moments,” the coach noted. “That said, after set one I thought we settled in, found ways to get swings, and I thought our kids maintained their level of aggression in tense moments where we’ve shied away earlier in the season.”

Izzy Bird had 41 set assists, five digs and two aces. Aliza Neitzel had six digs and one assist, Olivia Bird had five digs and one assist and Presley Brandenburg had three digs and one ace.

USC is now 4-3 (2-2 Gopher Conference) and the Rebels were set to play again on Thursday, Sept. 24 when they host Medford. Details on that match will be in next week’s Faribault County Register.

This week the Rebels play at Alden-Conger on Monday, Sept 28, host Madelia on Tuesday, Sept. 29, and travel to Bethlehem Academy on Thursday, Oct. 1.

St. Clair 3, USC 0

The United South Central volleyball team struggled against St. Clair on Monday night, Sept. 21, and came away with a 3-0 loss.

The scores of the three sets were 25-22, 25-15, 25-21

“With the exception of serving, our entire game was off tonight,” coach Joe Kuechenmeister said. “Certainly not because of effort, we just couldn’t piece it together. We didn’t pass well enough in serve receive or defense to run an effective offensive attack, and quality teams like St. Clair will take advantage of that.”

Chloe Bullerman led the team with eight kills, two digs, two blocks, one assist and one ace.

Alivia Bruegger and Reanna Obermeyer each had six kills. Bruegger added eight digs, one block and one assist, while Obermeyer added five digs.

Tatum Stangler had three kills, one dig and one block, while Kaydra Haugh had two kills, three digs, one block and one ace.

Aliza Neitzel had seven digs, Olivia Bird had six digs and two assists and Presley Brandenburg had four digs and two aces.

Izzy Bird had 18 assists, one kill, four digs and one ace in the match.