By Carolyn Mosier

The Lady Pioneers won their first regular season match against the Box Elder Lady Bears, winning all three sets.

Coach McKenney was pleased with her team’s performance overall and had this to say.

“We served well with 15 aces. Eva Wagoner had a great game getting six out of those aces. We had a pretty good defense for the most part. With so many free balls, we only had 21 digs which is still fine. Angie Sant had a good game offensively with five kills. It was nice seeing her being stronger at the net for us.’

“The second set was closer than I would have liked it to be. We won our first set 25-6 and then started to slip a little bit, and our second set, we weren’t playing quite to our level, and it was a little closer at 25-19, but a win is a win, and they were able to finish it 25-17. They came out ready to play, which was nice to see that confidence. Come out and stay positive when you have an error, and remember a play is just a play and develop mental toughness. It was time for a win.”

Big Sandy Vs Box Elder

Scores: Set 1: 25-26, Set 2: 25-19, Set 3: 25-17

Stats: Kills: Team 11 Individual Leader: Angie Sant -5

Aces: Team 15 Individual Leader: Eva Wagoner-6

Digs: Team 21 Individual Leader: Malaysia Baumann-7

Blocks: Team 2 Individual Leader: Angie Sant 2

Assists: Team 10 Individual Leader: Jai Baumann 10

Expanding on that theme of confidence, McKenney finds that when the girls lose that confidence, then that is when they beat themselves, and that is the part that is frustrating for a coach. Knowing what the girls are capable of when they hold that confidence and come out ready to play their game leads us to the results of the Highwood-Geraldine match.

The match against Highwood – Geraldine was a tough one. The Pioneer ladies were pretty slow to roll, losing their first set 11-25 and our second set 12 – 25. Their final set was more competitive, with a 20-25 score. According to Coach McKenney Highwood -Geraldine is one of the top teams in the district with a very solid team this season across the board, especially offensively with some very strong hitters that were definably proven in Thursday’s match.

McKenney had this to say about the Highwood-Geraldine game. “Blocking wise, we didn’t always get good touches, and when you can’t get good touches, you’re not able to slow that ball down, so it is pretty hard defensibly. We started to get a little better with blocking, but it was a little too late.

“We didn’t really get with it until the third set and lost that last set 20-25, so that one was the closest. If we had started the match playing how we played in the third set, it would have been more competitive throughout. So definitely something we are going to be working on-coming out to play right off the bat.”

“They were a tough team, and you could tell they’d been playing together for some time in the way that they moved together as a unit throughout the game, and offensively they could put the balls down not with just one-hitter, but they had several. They were tough. We had only one ace the whole night.

That final set showed these Pioneer ladies are capable of being competitive with a tough team like Highwood-Geraldine, so we have a lot to look forward to this season.

Big Sandy vs Highland-Geraldine Stats

SCORES:

Set 1:11-25 Set 2:12-25 Set 3:20-25

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

Kills Team:8 Amiaya Griffith/Angie Sant:2

Aces Team: 1 Keira Oats:1

Digs Team:26 Amiaya Griffith:11

Blocks 0 Assists Team 2 Jai Baumann:2