Lady Pioneers start season in Chinook and in Belt

By Carolyn Mosier

Belt Tournament Results

At the Belt tournament the Lady Pioneers had the opportunity to play five teams but not like a normal volleyball match when each set goes to 25 points usually taking the best three out of five. Instead, according to Coach McKenney, in the Belt tournament they had teams lined out exactly who you were playing and you played them in two sets to just 21 so all in all they played five different teams to two sets to 21 and there were no real championship games.

According to McKenney it was "so awesome to play so many different teams most of the teams are not in our district so it was nice to play variety of teams not normally seen during the season, so that was good. Obviously trying to work out some of the kinks so early in the season is a good way to get prepped for the season and get used to playing with each other. It was a little bit of an up and down day for us. We lost to two, won two and split with another team a little bit all over the place."

Their last game was with DGS a non-conference team that they will be playing this Friday in Stanford. According to McKenney they are a really good match up with Big Sandy ladies as they are very back and forth in the last few years she has been coaching. "It seems to be a trend that we do get a lot more volleys and that scrappier playing."

McKenney was happy with the girls showing and said "It was really fun and nice to finish with a win on a high note because we needed that after the ups and downs of the day, and we ended up beating them. Both sets were close. The first 21-19 and the second not quite as close, but really nice for the girls to get all that play time and finish up with a win in the end. We beat North Stars JV. We split with Belts JV which was kind of a bummer because we beat them easily the first set and then we kind of rolled over and wasn't playing our best game. Tri-city and Cascade were pretty good match ups as well with a lot of back and forth but just couldn't finish with little mistakes that add up. So, it as nice for that final game of the day with DGS, even though it was close, we were finally able to finish with a win and the girls felt really good about that."

Chinook

Against Chinook the Pioneer ladies, despite it being the first game of the season and the girls being nervous, showed great defense with 39 digs in their top three sets.

According to Coach McKenney the first set was a rough one because the girls nerves got the best of them "but the good news is they bounced back once they got past the first set and the second set was very tight with a with only a two point gap at 24-26 and that was when the girls started playing more of their game. That's where defensively we were picking it up and that kind of thing." Said McKenney.

The team finished stronger after their first set and made a good showing overall, and with a team total of 39 digs, the lady Pioneers definitely showed their defensive prowess.

Amiya Griffith led the defense with 17 out of 39 digs, offensively she had 6 out of 8 kills and a block. Jai Bowman had 5 out of 5 assists while Eva Yeadon had two blocks and an ace. Angie Sant also having an Ace. All and in all the girls made a good showing for their first game of the season especially in their defense.