Title defenses highlight South Dakota state volleyball tournament storylines

SIOUX FALLS — As the curtain rises on the 2024 South Dakota high school volleyball state tournaments, all three class champions from 2023 return to defend their titles.

Harrisburg puts a lengthy win streak on the line while looking for three championships in a row in Class AA; Sioux Falls Christian attempts to extend its Class A reign of dominance; and Chester hopes to become the first Class B repeat champion other than stalwarts Warner and Northwestern since 2002.

Here’s what to keep an eye on Thursday through Saturday at the Premier Center:

For a decade and a half, Sioux Falls Christian has been the team to beat in Class A volleyball, winning 12 of the past 14 state titles and seven in a row entering this weekend.

But while most of those championships came from a favorable seed position, if the Chargers are to collect an unprecedented eighth consecutive title, they’ll have to do it as the No. 8 seed in the bracket. First up for Sioux Falls Christian is No. 1 seed Miller, which has just one loss on the season (to Class B No. 2 Warner), in the opening match of the tournament. Should the Chargers knock off the Rustlers, a meeting with rival and No. 4 seed Dakota Valley or No. 5 Mount Vernon/Plankinton would await in the semifinals.

This season, SFC is 25-12, with those 12 losses the most in any single season during their 15-year run of dominance. The Chargers lost just 14 total over the previous four seasons. But the record can be quite misleading. Seven of those 12 losses this season came to out-of-state foes, and an eighth came to Class AA No. 1 Harrisburg.

Class A 3-seed Dell Rapids split a pair of matches with the Chargers this season, and 4-seed Dakota Valley knocked them off twice, but no one else in the tournament field has seen SFC this season.

To find the last time Harrisburg was on the losing end of a volleyball match, one must go back to Oct. 4, 2022.

Since then, the Tigers have stacked up 75 consecutive match wins and now stand three wins away from back-to-back perfect seasons. En route to a 28-0 record so far this season, Harrisburg has only dropped five total sets, sweeping 23 opponents, and has yet to be taken the distance in a best-of-five sets match. Of those five set losses, only one came against a Class AA foe, as Sioux Falls Washington, the No. 3 tournament seed, nabbed on Sept. 24.

Of the other contenders, look to the winner No. 4 O’Gorman and No. 5 Watertown, which should be a hard-fought match and will likely have the winner carrying a “nothing to lose” feeling against the Tigers in the semifinals. O’Gorman has only lost once in the last six weeks, that being a 3-0 loss to Harrisburg on Oct. 29.

In the bottom of the bracket, Jefferson and Washington are the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds and seem likely to face each other. A sleeper to watch is No. 6 Sioux Falls Roosevelt, which is 19-9, and went five sets with the Warriors twice already this season, both won by Washington. Both lower seeds in that bracket have been trending strong, with eight-straight wins for No. 7 Brandon Valley and seven in a row for Roosevelt.

Since 2003, no two consecutive seasons have passed without either Warner (eight titles in that span) or Northwestern (nine titles) winning a Class B championship, but Chester is looking to change that.

The Flyers took down Warner in a five-set thriller during last season’s championship match and enter this year’s tournament as the No. 1 seed. At 29-2, Chester’s lone losses this season came at the Pentagon Invitational tournament to a pair of Iowa programs. For the third year in a row, Chester enters the state tournament without a loss to another Class B team and the last such outcome was a 2022 state championship loss to Warner. 

But even as the favorite, a championship repeat doesn’t figure to be a cakewalk. Six of the eight Class B teams in the field are back from 2023. No. 2 Warner surely wants to avenge its loss in last year’s title matchup, and No. 3 Hitchcock-Tulare also hails from the powerhouse Region 1B. Lower seeds Burke, Gayville-Volin, Colman-Egan and Castlewood are all among the experienced state tournament programs looking to make a run.

But the Flyers are loaded, have a lot of big-match experience at the state tournament and a veteran coach in Jean O’Hara. For all of the skill and ability, Chester still has only two seniors on the roster and the Flyers appear to be in position to go back-to-back.

Dierks covers prep and collegiate athletics across the Mitchell Republic’s coverage region area. His focus areas include: Mitchell High School football and boys basketball; area high school football, volleyball, basketball, baseball and track and field; and South Dakota State football. He is also at the forefront of the Mitchell Republic’s podcasting efforts. Dierks is a Mitchell native who graduated from South Dakota State University with his bachelor’s degree in journalism in May 2020. He joined the Mitchell Republic sports staff in August 2021. He can be reached at ldierks@mitchellrepublic.com and found on Twitter at @LDierksy.