Blackhawks serve up 3-0 win at HMS

(Sentinel photo by Roy Tucker) Hinton's Jaci Dehner and Sadie Shuck team up to block a hit against Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn on Tuesday evening. [Click to enlarge]

Hinton gained something at Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn that it struggled with at Saturday's Cherokee tournament: confidence in its serving.

The Blackhawks scored 13 aces as they trounced the Hawks in straight sets in War Eagle Conference action at Hartley Tuesday evening.

"I thought on Saturday we got really timid with our serving," Hinton coach Kate Ortegren said. "If you serve like that against harder teams, they're going to pound it back at you. So it was nice to get that confidence back."

Hinton won game one 25-16 and that was as close as HMS would get as the Blackhawks went on to take game two 25-11 and game three 25-13.

"I'm glad they got it done," Ortegren said. "We were a little slow in the first game, but we were able to adjust and play defense against them."

"I think we gained a lot of confidence with our serving. We were aggressive and we took them out of their offense."

Jaci Dehner led the squad with five ace serves while Ashton Moody and Rileigh Burke each scored three aces.

Moody hammered nine kills to lead the offensive attack. Mallory Thoreson pounded eight kills while Shawnee Miller set up 22 assists.

Defensively, Thoreson dug out 12 hits. Burke and Moody each registered seven digs and Moody added one solo and six assist blocks.

"We have a big weekend," said Ortegren, whose squad will play at the Sioux City East tournament Saturday. "We need to get something out of this week to take into Saturday."

The Blackhawks travel to play Kingsley-Pierson in non-conference action on Thursday.