It’s Homecoming Weekend at Lewis & Clark College. The Women’s Soccer team takes on George Fox at 10am, the Football guys are up against the new Pacific program at 1pm, and we’re hosting University of Puget Sound at 7pm. Golf, swimming, cross country, softball and baseball are all competing today as well. It’s going to be a fine weekend for LC athleticis.
Go Pioneers!
A comment I saw on Facebook just now sums up our match last night: it was a full team effort and we really played well for the first two games, but winning in five was unnecessary when we should have finished Willamette in three.
Yes, we are excited and relieved to have come away with a win but I think the manner in which we arrived at that victory should have been more in our control. Errors and lack of confidence plagued the third and fourth games, but on a positive note, we battled back in both after digging ourselves a tremendous hole in the first 10 points. We may have underestimated our opponent, but we never surrendered to their drive or momentum.
Two things stood out in the first two games: our dominance at the net (our freshmen front row shined in Salem: Gabby Hands, Alicia Callejo-Black and Kayla Ernewein, who accomplished her pregame goal of shutting down their outside hitters) and our serves (Elena Hoff finished the night with four aces). We kept Willamette out of system and reliant on their safe sets.
I am proud of our tenacity and unwillingness to submit to defeat. We pulled out a win in the fifth game, 15-13, by some clutch execution of the basics that our coaches are always stressing: calm serve-receive passing, a fast offense, and a confident attack high off the hands of the blocker opponents.
We are now 3-2 in conference and face UPS this Saturday for our homecoming match. There should be a large turnout, what with all the activities and promotions during the day, and I am ready and willing to beat UPS at HOME in front of a loud crowd. YES WE CAN!
As most of you know, we dropped both matches last weekend. Disappointing, frustrating, but we came together as a group and recommitted to our team goals and set out to start of this week of competition with heads held high. We’ve had two days of productive practice to get us back into competitive shape and I am really looking forward to what our focus and determination will amount to tonight.
We do have something to prove: to our fans, to the conference, and to ourselves most of all. LC Volleyball is a force to be reckoned with and we refuse to allow setbacks to dissuade us from our intended path.
We are on the road tonight, playing Willamette in their own gym in Salem.
Go Pios!
The Lady Pioneers gathered to support the LC Football team in their home opener against Pomona on Saturday. The boys put on an impressive show despite the pouring rain, defeating the Sagehens 63-38.
Sandy, Lou, Elena, Molly, Margaret, Erika, Alicia, Kelsie, Leia and Jenn
After the football game we reconvened in Pamplin Gym to prepare for our conference match against Pacific University. Our warm up felt a little off – not our usual level of excitement (perhaps attributed to a long game the night before). We started slow and dropped the first game, but rallied back to win the next three and take the match over the Boxers.
As we rest (and treat) our bodies on this Sunday, we look ahead to our two matches at the end of the week: PLU at home and Linfield on the road.
We hosted George Fox University for our NW Conference home opener last night. It was, by far, one of the most fun and exciting games that I have been a part of in my four years at Lewis & Clark. Both teams started out slowly, matching point for point for the majority of game one. Back to back Pioneer kills gave us the momentum to edge out the Bruins to take the first game of the match 25-21.
Game two got off to a similar start but after a rocky run in the middle a few service errors we found it difficult to battle back.
Game three was ours, no doubt about it. It was decisive and fueled our spirit for the duration of the match.
We lost an exhausting game four 28-30 but, most impressively, never gave up and never surrendered. The fire in every player was evident as we took the floor for game five. One point at a time, we left our heart out on the court and invested every last ounce of energy and determination: and it payed off. We took the fifth game, and the match, to the roaring cheer of our hometown crowd. It was a thrilling victory.
Our outside hitters showed up to dominate: Margaret Dowling finished the night with 18 kills, Jenn Dowdy with 14. Dig leaders of the night were Leia Matsunaga (22), Jenn Dowdy (20) and Lou Ohki (19). Kat Fiedler, injury riddled and seemingly cursed, played her heart out on a sprained ankle and still delivered 7 kills while shutting down the Bruin’ offense with her towering block. It was a full team effort and we walked away from the game with pride, a renewed confidence, and a desire to keep winning.
We’re back on the court tonight, 7pm to face the Pacific Boxers.
Two tournaments, a trip to Los Angeles, and nine games later and we are sitting with a 4-6 record heading into league play. My apologies for the time between posts but as you can see, there has been a lot happening.
LCVB hosted our very own preseason tournament over Labor Day weekend. We opened with a 1-3 loss to Whittier, followed by a 0-3 loss to Northwest University. Our play wasn’t clicking and both games saw us get off to very, very slow starts. We gave up long strings of points and found it difficult to battle back once we found a rhythm. Our last game of the day against Walla Walla started along the same lines. We battled hard during the first two games but lost both by a few points that could be accounted for earlier in the game (service errors, silly mistakes). After a few decisive kills from Margaret, we took the third game and the momentum swung in our favor. It was a long match but we pulled a 3-2 victory from Walla Walla and found some of the confidence we were lacking.
Sunday brought us back for a match against Evergreen State. As the Pioneer website describes, we rolled past the Geoducks 3-0 (25-12, 25-23, 25-14). Overall, the tournament gave our team time to find a comfortable style and pace for our play. We experimented a lot with lineups, and I think our freshman (Gabby, Alicia, Kelsie, Erika and Kayla) shook off some nerves and really came alive.
The Pioneers broke in our new orange jerseys with a win over Walla Walla.
This past weekend we traveled to Los Angeles, California for the California Lutheran preseason tournament. We split, winning two and losing two and again, I think we made significant progress toward our team goals, both on and off the court. Our rematch against Whitter stood out. We lost a match at 3pm on Saturday against UCSC and didn’t play well. But we gathered our spirits, bowed our heads in determination, and came back for our 5pm match with renewed LCVB pride and intensity. We took down the Poets 3-1 and ended the tournament with a large family dinner at Marie Calendars.
We are gearing up for the start of conference play this Friday, home, against George Fox at 7pm. I can’t believe I am about to start my senior season as a Pioneer.
Pi-oh-NEERS!
