Clarkson/Leigh goes 1-2 at own tournament

The Clarkson/Leigh Patriots went 1-2 at their own tournament on Saturday, beating Pender 2-1 before losing 2-1 to Cross County and 2-0 to BRLD.

The Wolverines downed the Patriots 25-23 in the first set, and 28-26 in the second set.

Shelby Paprocki notched 9 digs while Halee Steffensmeier registered 8. Kaegan Held added 14 set assists.

Clarkson/Leigh dropped sets one and three to the Cougars, 27-25 and 25-22, but won set two 25-20.

Hannah Kasik put down 13 kills while Paprocki recorded 9 kills and 17 digs. Beth Wiese added 7 kills while Steffensmeier posted 14 digs. Held totaled 13 digs and 28 set assists.

The Patriots took set one from the Pendragons, 25-13, before winning set three 25-23. Pender took set two, 25-23.

Kasik tallied 12 kills while Steffensmeier contributed 13 digs. Held chipped in 20 set assists.

I thought Clarkson/Leigh was very competitive this past weekend. The Patriots may not have gotten the results they would of liked in terms of wins and losses, but there are a lot of positives to take away from this tournament.

Clarkson/Leigh (9-8) hosts Lutheran High Northeast (12-8) and Shelby/Rising City (10-7) in their home triangular Tuesday night.

The Eagles won 3-0 at home over O'Neill St. Mary's on Thursday while the Huskies beat Palmer 3-2 at home, also on Thursday.

Both these matches figure to be challenging for the Patriots without a doubt.

I'm sure Clarkson/Leigh will welcome both challenges though.

To be the best you have to beat the best, and the Patriots have an excellent opportunity in front of them, in my opinion.

When you talk about building a program, and becoming a great team, these are the types of matches you typically want to win, or at least compete well in.

Clarkson/Leigh is a work in progress in my mind as the team is relatively young, but at some point the team has to get over the hump and become a team to be reckoned with.

This team has already taken a lot of steps into making this program a contender now and in the future, now it's just a matter of continuing to build on that and improving.

I look for the Patriots to compete well against both teams on Tuesday.

Clarkson/Leigh may come up short in both matches, or they may win one, but either way I look for the sets to be close, and the Patriots to win a set in each match at the very least, kind of like Saturday.

I think this team is still a year or two away from winning these types of triangulars, but anything is possible with this team.

There's a lot of talent and promise across the board, and I think the future is bright for Clarkson/Leigh, regardless of how they do on Tuesday.

I look for the Patriots to make some more headway on Tuesday, and take more positive steps in the right direction.

Clarkson/Leigh has a week full of difficult matches so it's important for the Patriots to play well and start off on the right foot on Tuesday.

Clarkson/Leigh is at home against Humphrey St. Francis on Thursday and has the Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family Tournament on Saturday.