The Oakland-Craig Volleyball Team beat Pender 3-1 on the road Thursday night before beating Logan View/Scribner-Snyder 2-1 and losing 2-0 to Fremont Bergan at the Fremont Bergan Triangular Tuesday night.
The Knights came out strong in sets one and two against the Pendragons, winning them 25-18 and 25-17, respectively.
The Pendragons bounced back with a 25-19 set three win to force a fourth set, which saw Pender up 14-8 only to see Oakland-Craig go on a 10-0 run and eventually close out the match with a 25-18 win in the set.
Head Coach Chelsey Boden. "Our first set we came out pretty strong, and we put in some subs, and we got some other girls some playing time, and then the second set was pretty close, and third set we just kind of lost our energy there. And so then in the 4th set I kind of feel we came out the same way. And then we had a hustle play that didn't go our way, and really brought back the fire. And I said it's great that we got the fire back, but it shouldn't take something like that to get us going again."
Bailey Helzer, who was the S&W Welding Player of the Game for Oakland-Craig, had a match-high 17 kills while CharterWest Bank Sportsmanship Award Winner Natalia McNeill had 16. Ashten Rennerfeldt added 9 for the Knights.
Boden says Helzer and McNeill's teammates do a nice job of setting them up. "Yeah they do an excellent job. We try to put it up there for them and they put it away. Our defense I think has been doing a good job of calling shots for them, and I think it's really helped our offense out quite a bit."
The Knights dropped set one to the Raiders 27-25 before winning sets two and three 25-20.
Oakland-Craig lost set one 25-7 to Bergan and set two 25-17.
Good play from Oakland-Craig over the last week or so. Bergan is an exceptional team.
Oakland-Craig (9-15) battles Logan View/Scribner-Snyder (12-10) again in the first round of the East Husker Conference Tournament at Clarkson/Leigh on Thursday.
The Raiders lost 2-0 to Bergan in their other match on Tuesday, and have dropped three in a row and four out of their last five.
It's never easy to beat a team twice in season, let alone twice in two days, but that is exactly what Oakland-Craig will try and do.
I think the Knights can definitely do it and get it done too.
I think Oakland-Craig is a legit threat to knock off the Raiders and perhaps upset Clarkson/Leigh.
The Knights have really come on lately as they are 3-2 in their last five matches, and have been very competitive the last couple of weeks or so.
I feel Oakland-Craig is playing their best Volleyball of the season right now, and they have done a nice job of rattling off some wins.
The Knights just have to remember to keep up the intensity at all times, and keep plugging away.
Oakland-Craig lost their edge against Pender in set three and the first part of set four I felt, and the Knights can't let that happen at all in this Tournament.
Oakland-Craig has to play with fire, passion, toughness, tenacity, intensity, and grit.
The Knights have to play with school pride and must show some moxie as well.
Oakland-Craig has to take it to LVSS from start to finish, and give whoever they play in their next match all they can handle.
The Knights have a couple of stars in Helzer and McNeill, and they need to go off like they did against the Pendragons.
Oakland-Craig is starting to come along nicely, and I feel they could be a darkhorse in the EHC Tournament.
It all starts with the Raiders on Thursday, and I look for the Knights to come out strong and play a good match.
Anything can happen this time of year, and in particular this tournament, so Oakland-Craig has to be optimistic and must feel good about their chances.
First serve is set for 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment