Recently our Ladyjacks TEAM has found the winning formula by going 3-1 in the past week, while winning 7 straight sets along the way. Wednesday evening against Williston State College it appeared we would continue to roll as we made it 8 straight by taking the 1st set on the road. Following an exciting 1st set in which we came from behind to steal an early win, the Tetons found their rhythm and continued to use their size to outplay us by defeating our TEAM the next 3 sets (25-22,25-13,25-17,25-13).
Although a loss is a loss, and moral victories are truly hard to get excited about I felt it was evident this TEAM is improving week by week. WSC is big at the net and our hitters used a variety of attacks to offset the difference in size. Defensively we made a few adjustments that were not specific to beat WSC, but rather prepare us to be collectively better as the season winds down. The TEAM did a good job of executing a new strategy even though we only had two days to install a new philosophy. Jordyn Sondrol continues to be our go to hitter with 14 kills against a usual double team. Jackie Miller, Leah Parizek, and Courtney Hart did a great job of keeping the defense honest by combining for 17 kills. Ashleigh Aufforth did her part by executing a few new attacks from hitters and completing 28 assists.
Competing with WSC is extremely challenging for our Ladyjacks because the lack of size, and athleticism eventually catches up. Our margin for error is very small when we play teams who are as talented as WSC, BSC, and NDSCS but we have also made it clear we can beat you at any given moment. The main priority for our TEAM is to understand there is no room to take a play off or to simply give away a meaningful point by way of poor pass, serving violation, or miscommunication. Those errors are going to be apart of the match, but ours must be few and far between.
Moving forward, we are due for a nice home stretch. Friday evening we will compete against Trinity Bible at 6pm. Saturday, "The Woodshed" will be host to a 3-team triangulr classic with our 1st match beginning at 11pm vs. DCC followed by a 3pm start against Lake Region.
Come join us and catch the Football Game in between matches.
