Pine Creek

Miscommunication and disappointing defense dismantled varsity’s strong offense on September 30 to lead to a disappointing fourth loss. Away at Pine Creek the Cougars did not manage to bring home a set against 19th ranked Pine Creek.

With only a total of 27 digs over the course of the match, the Cougars struggled to get rolling. Rounding up 15 digs combined were Ashlynn Garcia and Bethany Heitland, junior staples of the Coronado defense, but compared to Garcia’s career high of 29 digs in this year’s Douglas County match, it was definitely clear that Coronado’s offense heavy team had an oddly weakened defense in the match. Combined with Pine Creek senior, Lindsey Jin, it was a tough game for the Cougars. The Colorado School of Mines signee dominated the match and had 20 kills over the three sets. The Cougars were closely defeated in three straight sets 25-27, 20-25, 21-25.

Jaelyn Hershberger,11, said about the match, “We didn’t perform how we wanted to,” Delaney St. Pierre, 11, continued, “we didn’t have the right mindset…We needed to focus more on playing together as a team and getting better on the things we worked so hard on in practice.”

Liberty

On October 4 the Cougars were back at home for Pink-Out Night to take on Liberty in a conference match.  In the first set the Cougars built up an early five point lead, but as the small but mighty Lancer crowd cheered, and as communication errors by Coronado piled up, Liberty came back, and soon was up 25-24. Jaelyn Hershberger came through with an electric hit to tie it up again, but it was unfortunately not enough; the Lancers barely took the set 27-25.

However, over the next three sets the Cougars’ offense came alive, winning the match 25-23, 25-16, 25-22. Jaelyn Hershberger led the team with a whopping 24 kills, almost double her record before the match. Mara Abernethy also contributed 14 kills and 2 blocks over the course of the set. Coronado’s defense, although stronger than it was in the loss against Pine Creek, still had 21 errors.

Although the Cougars were glad they won the match, they know they could have played better. ”We didn’t really apply what we learned the day before.” And, as St. Pierre looked back on the “bittersweet” win, she reflected the team’s mindset: “We’re more focused on getting better as a team [than winning].”

As the Cougars look towards the match against Palmer on October 6 they are focused on working together and showing great defense.

Varsity plays at home next on October 13 for Parent Night at 6pm in the main gym against Doherty. Go Cougars!