A little home cookin’ got the Big Sandy spikers back on a winning track Saturday.
Coming off three straight away matches, the Pioneers took advantage of a homecourt edge at last and beat Dutton/Brady, 25-18, 25-15, 25-6.
“It was an exciting night both individually and as a team. The girls brought a lot of energy and fun to the court,” said Big Sandy coach Brittany McKenney. “It felt good to win. We still have a lot of areas to improve on but I am proud of the progress we are making.”
Individual team records for a match fell in the dominant effort, McKenney said, as Amiya Griffth set the mark with 13 kills, Alicia Bjornestad rose to the top with 24 assists and Caydence Pleninger had an unprecedented seven aces.
The win broke a three-match losing skid. The Pioneers fell Thursday at Chinook to the perennial upper-echelon Sugarbeeters.
“Our second set against Chinook was pretty good. We were able to hang with them,” McKenney said. “We just need to eliminate the small errors. We made mistakes that we shouldn’t have. Free balling into the net or out of bounds, missing serves, lack of communication, et cetera. If we can get things tightened up, good things will happen for us.”
The coach said she hopes the team can take momentum from Saturday’s win into a busy slate of matches this week.
The Pioneers travel Tuesday to Centerville, a team behind them in the District 7C standings they are yet to face this season. They return home Thursday to face powerhouse Fort Benton with the first match, C-squad, slated for 4 p.m. A visit to Highwood is in order Friday but Saturday’s match in Hays is off due to the COVID-related closure of the Fort Belknap reservation.
“I’m hoping that the win from (Saturday) night will help the girls’ confidence,” McKenney said.
