The College of the Rockies women’s volleyball team didn’t get the win they wanted but was satisfied with the compete the team showed.
The Avalanche played the Douglas College Royals in a doubleheader on Jan. 11 and 12, where they were downed 3-1 and 3-0 respectively.
“Obviously we want the wins, but I think this week being the first competitive match this semester, knowing we have a very good team coming in, I really wanted to see how we were going to compete,” said head coach John Swanson.
With the first match on Friday, Swanson said the inconsistency of starting out good and then levelling off was disappointing to see, but it was the opposite at Saturday’s match.
“The positive is we didn’t start off well, but we built a lot better competition and finished off really well. Even though we won the first set yesterday, this last set was by far the best that we played. So, I’m very encouraged by that — yes it’s a loss, but I think the way we played was very good volleyball,” said Swanson.
This weekend Swanson noted outside hitter Claire Sheppard stood out in the Jan. 11 match.
She finished the day with three kills, three errors, 11 total attempts.
“She was excellent along the net, getting her hands on a lot of balls and making some blocks,” said Swanson.
He also added the liberos play by Brooke Lightburn and Megan Clark was good throughout the weekend.
The Avalanche team currently has a 3-11 record for six points.
“It’s good for us to be pushed now so we can push those next games and try to get those wins moving on to provincials,” said Lightburn.
Their next four matches are on the road, where they start their weekend on Jan. 17 to 18 against the Columbia Bible College Bearcats (0-14) and then head for a doubleheader against the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades (9-5) on Jan. 19-20.
“We will have a lot of players roll through the positions and get lots of playtime. So, it’s important to keep everybody rolling,” said Clark about the four games in four nights.
Going into the matches next weekend, Swanson says the team is going to have to work on consistency if they want to be successful.
“Eliminating the runs, we talked about giving up four-five points in a row and those kinds of things, but that will be key for us. We will go into another gym, we will have a tough match against CBC, but it’s maintaining that confidence and then transitioning that to having success,” he said.
The Avalanche will be back at College of the Rockies for their final home game of the regular season on Jan. 25 against the Capilano University Blues.
jessica.dempsey@cranbrooktownsman.com
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