Cheney volleyball begins season with Pullman win
Last updated 9/15/2016 at 11:47am
The Cheney High volleyball team began their season on a high note after a close 3-2 Great Northern League win over Pullman, Sept. 8, followed by a seventh-place finish in the Gold Division at the Lakeland Invite, two days later.
The game scores for the Pullman match were: 25-17, 22-25, 26-24, 20-25 and 15-13.
“We came back to win that third set, it showed that we have a lot more grit than we used to before,” head coach Heather Zorrozua said.
Zorrozua added that she switched the rotation a bit during the later sets, but realized it was not playing to the team’s strengths. Rylie Pease led the match with 18 kills, and her team with four aces. Peyton Stark had a career-best 44 assists. Zorrozua said Stark played with a nagging injury during the match.
“She dove for a ball and I called a timeout,” Zorrozua said. “I wanted to sit her down, but she stuck it out. Taylor Gould and Rylie had double digit kills for the first time. They think if they show up to play, we won’t have any problems in being successful.”
On defense, Ally Jones led her team with 17 digs while KD Skillingstad had four blocks.
“I’m glad we were able to come out with a win against Pullman, it was a battle,” Zorrozua added.
At the Lakeland Invite, Cheney qualified for the Gold Division after they finished pool play with a win over Reardan (25-13 and 25-10), and a split with Sandpoint (25-19 and 21-25). No individual statistics from the Lakeland Invite were available as of press time.
“Against Reardan we were getting back to defense and fundamentals,” Zorrozua said. “Sandpoint had a lot of powerful hitters and we blocked well.”
The Blackhawks lost their crossover match against Walla Walla, 14-25, 25-10 and 15-10. In the championship playoffs they lost to Post Falls, 25-22, 20-25 and 15-11.
Zorrozua said one takeaway from the tournament was how Cheney faced teams with height and power, which will help them prepare for league play.
Zorrozua said she sat out Stark and had Pease and Skillingstad as setters for the tournament.
“They both have setting experience, but they are more effective in the middle and on the outside,” Zorrozua said.
The Blackhawks (1-0 GNL, 1-0 overall) hosted Clarkston (0-1, 0-1) Sept. 13 in their first home match of the regular season and will travel to West Valley to play the first-place Eagles (2-0, 2-0) tonight (Sept. 15).
Zorrozua said her team will focus on getting Stark back into practice, as well as serving.
“Getting back to us playing as a team is going to be a big focus for us as well,” she added.
Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.
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