Lady Raiders play five matches in seven days

Last week was the busiest for the Lady Raiders this season. They played five matches, including victories at Oroville and Entiat and a home win against Oroville.

LR played one at home against Bridgeport last Thursday, Monday with Oroville to finish the season series, and again at home last night against Manson. The Lady Raiders came away with three wins over the course of the week.

At Oroville Oct. 9, Taima Carden delivered an impressive serving streak of nine points, giving LR the offensive spark it needed to beat the Hornets.

Oroville managed to stay with LR because of Raider overconfidence coming into the match.

Head Coach Nate Piturachsatit wants to address this by “pushing them harder in practice and (teaching) them to practice with purpose,” he said.

On Thursday at home, the Lady Raiders were swept by the Fillies of Bridgeport. The Fillies came in as the number-one team in the North Central 1B-2B/Central Washington 2B and it showed.

“The girls didn’t back down” Piturachsatit said. “They stood up to the challenge and played some excellent volleyball.”

But the Fillies took advantage of LR’s inconsistent play to roll to the win, Piturachsatit said. Though their the play looked better on a whole, he said, “We need to clean up our play in order to improve.” During the match, the coach made changes in the rotation: Danielle Laramie took over setter duties with Mikel Friedlander. Piturachsatit said he was impressed with the way Laramie took the lead on the court.

After the loss on Thursday, LR made a big turnaround and beat the Tigers of Entiat 3-1.

“We are going to be a difficult team to face when we play like we did against Entiat,” Piturachsatit said.

Laramie really stepped up to be the leader the team needed, the coach said.

“She communicated with the girls well and kept herself composed the entire game and the rest of the team fed off that,” he said.

He also was impressed with the play of Ashley Lezard.

“Ashley Lezard had several serving streaks in every match where she racked up points for us,” Piturachsatit said.

In the final match, he noted, the Lady Raiders won because of a server who came off the bench.

“Holly Jo Carriere came off the bench to serve six points in a row and pretty much secured the win for us,” he commented.

In a scheduling change, the Lady Raiders played the home match against Oroville on Monday night. The Lady Raiders played with more vigor and poise than in the early matches. With better communication and movement on the court the Ladies easily swept the Hornets 3-0 who looked stunned at the way the Lady Raiders attacked the net and covered the court.

Cheyenne Kelly-Marconi scored the winning point in two of the three games. Marconi ended game one with a service ace, and scored the 25th point in game two on a kill.

Laramie gave a commanding performance with two aces and several kills. Tanecia Stanczak took charge of the net, getting several blocks and kills. Carriere had another good performance in game three with a good service run to give the Lady Raiders a 15-point lead. Samantha Turner and Darien Seylor both contributed aces and showed more confidence in their play on the court.

The hectic week ended last night with Manson. It was their last home game and “Senior Night,” due to the rescheduling of the match with Oroville, which previously had been set for Oct. 25.

Now the Lady Raiders will get a chance to practice this week to improve for the home stretch. The next match for the Lady Raiders will be next Tuesday at Liberty Bell starting at 5 p.m.

Match scores

At Oroville

LR 25 Oroville 27

LR 25 Oroville 13

LR 19 Oroville 25

LR 25 Oroville 16

LR 15 Oroville 10

Home vs Bridgeport

Bridgeport 25 LR 22

Bridgeport 25 LR 15

Bridgeport 25 LR 19

At Entiat

LR 25 Entiat 21

LR 14 Entiat 25

LR 25 Entiat 20

LR 25 Entiat 14

Home vs Oroville

LR 25 Oroville 17

LR 25 Oroville 21

LR 25 Oroville 15