SLEEPY EYE– The Sleepy Eye Indians volleyball team only needed three sets to defeat Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart Mustangs Thursday night.

The Indians (4-8) sweep came from three close sets winning 25-20, 25-22, 27-25 in a nonconference game.

Sleepy Eye fell behind the early points in the first set forced to battle back. Madi Heiderscheidt’s kill from the outside broke an 11-11 tie putting her at the service line for the Indians.

Heiderscheidt’s kill was followed by a kill from Mya Ibberson to give the Indians their first lead of the set. The Mustangs (6-11) battled back to a 19-19 tie when Heiderscheidt stopped the run with a kill setting two more kills for the Indians 25-20 victory in the first set.

“We knew we had to come out aggressive, we did and we hit the ball hard that really got the momentum going,” Indians coach Sydney Geiger said.

The second set went back-and-forth as neither team could mount a points spread. Sleepy Eye gained momentum in the late part of the set on a kill from Ibberson and two consecutive ace serves from Jenna Zuhlsdorf.

“Serving was awesome tonight with very little errors, that has been a focus with us all season and it is good to see we are getting somewhere with that,” Geiger said.

BLHS earned the side-out point to bring the deficit to 23-21 when Ibberson placed a timed kill into the back row for Sleepy Eye. The Mustangs took advantage of an error from the Indians to keep the second set going with the Indians leading 24-22. MaKenzie Cselovszki delivered a kill from the outside to give the Indians the win in a close second set.

The Mustangs broke away from another close set going on a 9-1 run to break way from the Indians. A serving error broke the Mustangs points run as the Indians began to make hitting mistakes on their side of the court.

“The focus tonight was to keep our attitudes positive and stay energetic on the court,” Heiderscheidt said.

Madi Krueger went to the service line as the Indians put up seven points and retake the lead. Kruger tallied three ace serves in the points shift.

Sleepy Eye found itself in a 23-20 deficit from solid serving on the BLHS side of the net. A serving error by the Indians gave the Mustangs the 24-20 lead.

Facing defeat in the third set, Sleepy Eye earned the sideout point before Heiderscheidt went up for a block and save the set. Heiderscheidt’s block landed between the Mustangs hitters bringing the Indians within one. Cselovszki dropped a kill from the left side of the court to tie the set at 24-24.

BLHS earned the sideout on a hitting error from Sleepy Eye to go up by one, but Heiderscheidt recorded two kills and Krueger’s ace serve gave the Indians the 27-25 win and the sweep.

“It is instinct and I did what I had to do, I knew I had to swing hard as hard as I could — It was really fun to get the win tonight, we are winning the games that we need to win so it is really exciting,” Heiderscheidt said.

Heiderscheidt led the Indians with 14 kills and 15 digs, Ibberson had 10 kills and four blocks. Cassidy Hoffman ended the night with 24 set assists and nine digs and Krueger had 14 digs and six ace serves for the Indians.

BLHS will travel to Springfield on Monday for a Tomahawk Conference game.

Sleepy Eye will have tournament play in Nicollet on Saturday.