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!