Lady Bulldogs Drop Hard Fought Battle To Arlington

The Milbank Area Lady Bulldogs played a hard fought game, but suffered a 3-1 non-conference volleyball loss to Class B Arlington Thursday in its first road game of the season. Milbank Area dropped to 1-1 overall.

The locals got behind early in the first set and trailed 2-7. The team fought their way back with kills from Molly Rick, Caryssa Mielitz, Mikaela Hoeke and Rachelle Gabriel to even the score at 12-12. A few unforced errors by the Lady Bulldogs put them down 12-16. Milbank Area inched its way back and knotted the score up again at 21-21. Two big hits by the Cardinals and two Milbank Area errors ended the first set at 23-25.

Milbank Area again trailed early in the second set but came back to even the score at 6-6. A seven point run by the Lady Bulldogs stretched the Milbank Area lead to 13-6 with three aces by Mielitz, a kill by Katie Cannedy and a block by Rick. Arlington struggled and committed several errors which put the Lady Bulldogs ahead 21-14 late in the set. Milbank Area took it home with two more aces by Mielitz and errors by the Cardinals to win the set at 25-18.

Milbank Area got off to a better start in the third set and led 7-3 and 19-13. The Lady Bulldogs then went on a 10-point drought and fell behind 19-23. The locals could not recover and lost 20-25.

Milbank Area kept its composure and battled hard in the fourth set. The score teetered and was tied 14 times until it was 24-24. Mielitz pounded down a kill to go ahead 25-24. Hoeke then dumped the ball over the net where it landed on the line on Arlington’s side of the court. The questionable call went in the Cardinals favor and evened it back up at 25-25. Arlington went ahead 25-26 with a Milbank Area error, but Mielitz came back with another kill to knot it up at 26-26. The Cardinals found a hole and went up 26-27 before committing an error to again even the score at 27-27. Another Arlington kill gave the opponent at 26-27 advantage before a Cardinal error knotted the scored at 27-27. The Cardinals then took the win at 27-29 with a kill and a hitting error by the Lady Bulldogs.

Mielitz led the Lady Bulldogs with 14 kills on 33-39 hitting, eight aces on 22-26 serving and 14 digs. Rick followed with eight kills on 8-14 hitting and two blocks while Cannedy added four kills on 16-18 hitting, one ace on 13-15 serving and 14 digs. Gabriel had three kills on 9-9 hitting and five blocks in the contest.

Hoeke went 79-81 setting with 21 assists, 6-9 serving with one ace and 11 digs while Mackayla Schuelke was 26-27 setting with seven assists, 8-8 serving and nine digs. Also contributing to the Lady Bulldogs offense was Madi Schulte, 9-12 serving with one ace, 8-8 setting and 19 digs, and MyKayla Thyne, 4-6 serving with one ace and nine digs.

Milbank Area has a busy week this week. The Lady Bulldogs will travel to Agency Village tonight and will host Redfield-Doland Thursday. The team will participate in the Sioux Falls Christian tournament Saturday.