The Goshen Eagles volleyball team closed out the regular season Tuesday by defeating the Ariton Purple Cats in three straight sets 25-19, 25-13, 25-19.

The win improves Goshen’s record on the year to 33-10.

“We were tired,” said Eagles head coach Amy Warrick. “We are coming off a marathon tournament over the weekend so they looked a little slow to me. They were able to pick things up and get something started.”

The Eagles and Purple Cats were neck and neck for the majority of the first set until the Eagles, up 19-16, pulled away scoring six of the next seven points.

In game two the Eagles scored nine unanswered points, jumping out to12-4 lead and never looking back.

The Purple Cats were not quite ready to go home and held a 17-16 midway through game three.

Casey Allen finished with 15 kills, six blocks and two digs, while Kati Thomas had 27 kills, 12 blocks, three digs and three aces. Freshman Hannah Calhoun finished the game with 17 digs and two aces.

The Eagles used the final match of the season to begin to get things ready for a stretch run into the area tournament starting on Thursday.

“We worked a lot on serving today,” Warrick said. “We also worked a lot on hitting. I wanted them to work on different types of hits and they were able to do that and they were able to get a lot of their serves in.”

After a convincing win, Warrick likes where team is headed and is excited to see what happens come tournament time.

“We need to concentrate on the little things,” Warrick said. “We could be quicker. I want to be able to concentrate on moving a little bit faster, but I think that is coming from their legs being tired. They are playing good volleyball right now. We just have to be able to get homecoming out of the way and get focused.”

Another thing the Eagles have been working on over the past few weeks is developing a rotation they can use during their run in the post season. “We changed it up today to get some people some playing time. We are pretty set,” Warrick said.

“I like it and they last few times we have done it, it has been a great rotation.”

The Eagles will rely on their group of seniors to lead the way during their run in the post season.

The Eagles begin area play Monday when they face the winner of a 4 p.m. match between Luverne and Highland Home.