SLAYTON– The Murray County Central Rebels volleyball team is coming off a five match weekend.

Playing in the first of their back to backs Monday evening versus the Pipestone Arrows. The Arrows would sweep the Rebels 25-17, 25-14 and 25-20.In the first set, the Rebels had a difficult time against the length of the Arrows and struggled to consistently score. The Arrows would close out set one 25-17.

The second set was more of the same. The Rebels came out on fire but wasn’t able to sustain the lead and Pipestone continue to use their length at the net blocking several kill shots by the Rebels. The went on a huge run and closed out the Rebels 25-14 in set two, taking a two set lead heading into the third.In the third set, the Rebels wouldn’t go down without a fight and they were facing a deficit the entire set but thanks to back to back kills by Morgan Winter and Zoey Iverson, it gave the Rebels momentum, cutting the deficit to three. However, that is as close as the Rebels would get.

Pipestone would close out the set and match MCC, 25-20.Jaelen Barstad for the Rebels led the team in digs with 17 and teammate Morgan Winter led her team in kills with five. Casey Miller led the team in assists with 10 and Kate Slettum was second on the Rebels in assists with nine.

“The defense look really good tonight,” Head coach Katie Furth said. “They have some powerful hitters that have been playing together for awhile. It was nice to see us hang in there with a powerful team. I thought that Pipestone did a great job of using our block and turning it into a kill points for them.”

Furth added that the message to the team was to continue to show improvement all season long like they have been. Also to bring this intensity in this match into a conference opponent match-up tomorrow night as they host the Westbrook Walnut Grove Chargers.After the match-up with WWG, the rebels will conclude their regular season play against the Edgerton Flying Dutchmen next Monday evening before getting ready for the conference tournament