MOORHEAD-The last time Moorhead was playing a home volleyball match, it ended with the Spuds staring at Bemidji celebrating a win in the Class 3A, Section 8 semifinals, after the Spuds had won the first two sets.
There wasn't many ways to describe that night for the Spuds.
"It sucked a lot," Moorhead senior outside hitter Kenna Taylor said. "It definitely hit home, seeing our seniors and the way it hit our seniors. We have a lot of seniors on this team, so we don't want to have it happen again."
The Spuds made a new memory Tuesday in the team's home opener.
Moorhead watched an 18-13 lead in Set 1 turn into a 31-29 loss. The Spuds came back with a 25-10 win in Set 2, a 25-19 win in Set 3 and a 25-9 win in Set 4 to top Sioux Falls Washington (S.D.)
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Just because Moorhead made a new memory on Tuesday, doesn't mean the team has forgotten how last season ended. The Spuds have plenty of returning seniors that remember the feeling of a win slipping away to end a season.
"We came back and we worked really hard in the offseason," said Taylor, who finished with 13 kills, nine digs, three blocks and an ace Tuesday. "We came back with more fire in us and we're ready to hit the ground running."
The Spuds were running in the first set on Tuesday with an 18-13 lead and hadn't trailed since taking a 7-6 lead in the early going. Sioux Falls Washington, however, answered with an 8-2 run to take a 21-20 lead and eventually took the set.
"We got a nice little lead, got too comfortable and sat back a little bit," Moorhead coach Char Lien said. "Then, all of a sudden we panicked and made some errors. It was all stuff on our side. It really wasn't a matter of what they were doing."
The Spuds answered in big fashion with a dominating second set, in which the Spuds opened the set with a 15-5 run en route to the 25-10 win.
"It took us awhile to find our groove," Moorhead senior middle hitter Brianna Carney said. "After that, we just wanted to play how we can play and just show what we got."
The Spuds trailed 1-0 in Set 2, but would never trail the rest of the match. The Spuds opened the third set with an 11-5 run and the fourth set with a 19-5 run. The rest was history.
"Throughout the whole night it was like pulling teeth," Lien said. "Finally, that last set we started playing with a little discipline and play with our tempo."
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Moorhead will get a rematch with Bemidji on Tuesday back on the court where the Spuds watched the Lumberjacks celebrate a trip to the section championship game.
"You want to forget about it because it was really hard to go through," Carney said. "If you do bring it up, you have to remember that you don't want that to happen this year. We're going to do whatever we can to get back and fight for it."
SFW (kills-blocks-aces): Hazard 6-2-0, VanBockern 3-2-1 (11 assists), Nold 4-1-4, Olson 3-2-0, Miedema 4-4-0, Kayl 3-0-0.
M: Hanson 0-0-3 (21 assists), LaFlamme 5-7-6, Tigue 1-0-0, Taylor 13-3-1 (nine digs), Tonsfeldt 6-7-2, B. Carney 4-2-1, Gilbertson 7-0-0, K. Carney 5-0-1.
