Pender loses to Oakland-Craig and Homer

The Pender Volleyball Team lost 3-1 at home to Oakland-Craig Thursday night before falling 3-1 at Homer Tuesday night.

Oakland-Craig came out strong in sets one and two, 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 Kayla Brewer said the team's slow start proved to be costly. "Yeah we started off way too slow. We can't get down two sets and then try to battle back at the end because then it comes down to not being able to make any mistakes. And we just got to start right from the beginning next time."

Brittni Beckman had 11 kills while Sadie Lamplot had 10 kills and 7 digs. Ashley Ostrand posted 9 kills and 9 digs while Caitlyn Heise added 8 kills. Kaylin Sandall totaled 11 digs while Rylee Lehmkuhl had 10 digs and 34 set assists.

Homer won set one 25-23 before the Pendragons took set two 25-17. Homer won set three 25-23 and set four 25-18.

Ostrand had 12 kills and 13 digs while Beckman had 11 kills. Lamplot had 9 kills and 8 digs while Heise finished with 9 kills. Sandall notched 12 digs while Zoey Lehmkuhl registered 8 digs and 30 set assists. Rylee Lehmkuhl added 7 digs.

Tough sledding for Pender their last two matches. Two winnable matches that didn't go their way.

The Pendragons (5-16) take on Twin River (15-8) in the first round of the East Husker Conference Tournament at Howells-Dodge on Thursday.

The Titans went 1-2 at the Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family Round Robin on Saturday, beating Howells-Dodge 2-0, but losing 2-0 to Clarkson/Leigh and Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family.

Pender definitely has their work cut out for them in this match, but anything can happen.

Anyone can be beaten on any given night, and that's something the Pendragons have to keep in mind when taking on Twin River.

Brewer was saying like it seems like Pender plays the Titans every year in this tournament, and the positive thing about that is the Pendragons should be somewhat familiar with Twin River and know what to expect.

These teams don't play in the regular season, and I think that sort of hurts Pender, but then again the Titans don't really know what to expect from the Pendragons.

Pender has to step up their game and execution and intensity level.

I thought the Pendragons had too many mistakes against Oakland-Craig, and gave up too many easy points.

Pender has to eliminate hitting errors, in particular, but also service errors.

The Pendragons have to serve and serve receive the ball effectively, as well as block and pass well.

Being on point in all aspects of the game is going to be key for Pender.

The Pendragons have had good statistics offensively and defensively, and it's so good to see so many girls getting involved.

But again it appears the self inflicted wounds is what's killing Pender, and that needs to change for the Pendragons to turn their season around.

Pender has a nice team, a mixture of older and younger players.

The schedule certainly has its challenges the rest of the way so the Pendragons have to step up their game and play well.

Thursday's match is scheduled to start at 4:30 at Howells-Dodge. The winner gets either the Jaguars or Tekamah-Herman, and the loser gets the loser of that match.