Volleyball Goes 2-2 in Opening Tournament

It was a somewhat auspicious beginning for the 2010 Beaver volleyball squad, as the freshman laden team went 2-2 over the weekend in Lamar, Colorado. Pratt defeated Clarendon (TX) and Sheridan (WY), but lost to #21 Laramie County (WY) and Western Wyoming.
The 14th ranked Beavers played at times like season veterans, as in a 25-13 win over Clarendon where Pratt recorded 16 kills with no errors in 23 attempts, a .693 hitting percentage. The previous game, a 22-25 loss, saw the Beavers hit negative. Pratt opened the Clarendon match with a 27-25 win, dropped the second set, then finished with two 25-13 sets.
Sara Aloisio led a very balanced attack with 9 kills. Natali Jones and Taelir Winkel added 8 each, and Nohely Perez and Emily Scheck each tallied 7. Scheck also dished out 21 assists, with Sam Reed adding another 14. Reed recorded four aces to lead the Beavers serving. Tori Provencio, the libero from Derby, led the defense with 23 digs.
Pratt ran into a different caliber of ball for their second match of the season, falling to #21 Laramie County 19-25, 16-25, 22-25. Even so, Pratt had an outstanding blocking game, with 8 team blocks. Jones, Aloisio and Winkel all had 2 each. Jones, a local Pratt product, led the offense with her best game of the weekend. She recorded 9 kills and hit a remarkable .471. Perez also had 9 kills, but hit only .158. Reed delivered 19 assists, with Scheck adding 9. The defense was led by Taylor Frederiksen with 8 digs. Bailey Rush added 5.
At 8:00 am on Saturday, Pratt had to face another Wyoming team, Sheridan. The Beavers again played uneven, but pulled out the match 25-18, 22-25, 25-17, 25-19. Once again Jones led the offense with 10 kills, hitting .238. Perez kept pace with Jones, also recording 10 kills and hitting .160. Rush added 8, and Scheck and Aloisio had 6 apiece. Reed delivered 22 assists, with Scheck adding 17. Tori Provencio led the defense with 17 digs.
Pratt had one more Wyoming team to get through, but it proved to be the toughest opponent they would face. In the first two sets Pratt could not adjust to the tempo of Western Wyoming, falling 10-25 and 11-25. Pratt recovered to go ahead for most of the third set, until Western finally got on top at 21-20. The Beavers fell 22-25.
The Beavers struggled offensively, with Perez having 7 kills, and Jones, Rush, and Scheck all adding 4 each. Most of those were in the third set, when Perez went 4 for 8, and Jones went 3 for 7. Neither player had a hitting error. Reed delivered 16 assists, with Scheck adding 6. Rush led the defense with 11 digs, with Provencio adding 8.
“There were a lot of bright spots out there this weekend,” said Head Coach Patrick Hall. “The Wyoming teams are huge this year, so we were fortunate to get to see them early. We are not particularly big, so we will need to continue to work on our uptempo game, which at times we ran very well.”
“Our setters and middles worked well together,” continued Hall. “This is an element of our game that’s been missing the last couple of seasons, so we’re excited about our prospects there. We still need work on the outside, but I think that’s coming along. Provencio had an outstanding weekend for a freshmen, which is a very pleasant surprise for us on the defensive end. When we get Ong Ly and Hannah Melichar back in the line-up, I think we’ll be a little stronger.”
The Beavers will open conference play this Wednesday when they travel to Liberal to take on perennial rival Seward County at 6:30pm.