United South Central snapped out of its first-set funk against Alden-Conger Monday in Alden for a 3-1 victory over the rival Knights.

It wasn’t exactly the type of performance Rebels head coach Jolene Bute was hoping for heading into a showdown with New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva, but her volleyball team got the job done in a 16-25, 25-15, 25-15, 25-17 come-from-behind victory.

“We weren’t focused,” Bute said. “We didn’t have a game face on and we weren’t focused in that first game especially. Passes weren’t there, sets weren’t there.”

Despite the lack of crispness USC (10-7, 3-2 Gopher) finally established a rhythm in the final three sets with Kayla Stenzel leading the comeback effort.

Stenzel had 20 hits in the contest and tallied 17 kills for the Rebels. Val Sahr added 11 kills and Marielle Schultz led USC with 34 assists.

Carly Peterson led the Rebels with 17 digs while Schultz added 15 and Tayla Sunde 11.

Taking the first set was a big step for Alden-Conger (4-12-1) and its coverage allowed the Knights to remain competitive throughout the match.

“Even though we lost I think it was a pretty good confidence booster for us to get one set against them,” said Alden-Conger head coach Melissa Wasmoen. “If you can’t cover against a team like this we wouldn’t have played with them at all.”

The Knights led through the beginning stages of the third set, jumping out to a 6-2 lead after USC was penalized for an illegal substitution, but the Rebel hitters started to heat up.

Stenzel gave USC a 16-10 advantage with a kill and the Rebels went on to win 25-15.

In the fourth set USC broke a 7-7 tie with seven consecutive points to take a 14-7 lead and despite a late rally from the Knights, held on for a 25-17 victory.

“All I can say is my girls worked extremely hard tonight to get to every ball,” Wasmoen said. “They gave it their every effort. I just said in the huddle, ‘I’m not going to be mad at you about anything because you guys played hard tonight.’”

The Rebels, who received votes in the latest prep volleyball poll, move on to face rival NRHEG Tuesday in Wells. The Panthers come into the match on the heels of their first two losses of the season at the Blue Earth tournament Saturday.

Bute said her team tends to rise to the challenge of a difficult opponent, like the team did in taking a set from Bethlehem Academy and pushing eighth-ranked Martin County West to 25-19, 27-25 Saturday in Blue Earth.

“It seems like we play so much better against the better teams,” Bute said.

The Knights travel to St. Clair Tuesday and host Martin County West Thursday.