Lady Raiders struggle in opening tourney

Lady Raider Volleyball travelled to Davenport Sept. 6, for the season opening tourney. Only 13 Lady Raiders (seven varsity, six JV) were practice eligible to partake in the tournament. The small numbers hurt the Lady Raiders in matches where the opponents were able to sub out players but LR was not.

LR lost to Omak, Almira/Coulee-Hartline, and Davenport in two-game sets. The Ladies also lost to Bridgeport in a three-game set to round out the day.

“This is always a challenging tournament as we face teams who had very successful volleyball programs over the years,” Head Coach Nate Piturachsatit said. “Even though we lost, there are always positives.”

One of those positives was in the Bridgeport match.

“We went to three games with Bridgeport, and losing a close third game,” he said. “Bridgeport was the number-one team in our league last year and look to be just as strong.”

Jocelyn Moore impressed Piturachsatit by leading the team in blocks. “At one point she had four blocks in a row versus ACH, which gave our team some much needed energy and momentum,” he said.

Piturachsatit said he was pleased with the way the Lady Raiders kept their opponents out of step with tough serving. A place the team can improve, he said, was defense; many games were lost by poor defense.

Coach Piturachsatit believes his team will take the losses at Davenport as an impetus to improve for the coming weeks.

“These girls have potential,” he said. “Now it’s our job to get them to perform at their potential.”

This week the Lady Raiders play two matches on the road. Tomorrow LR heads to scorched Liberty Bell to take on the Mt. Lions, starting at 5:30 p.m. On Saturday LR heads south to Soap Lake to take on the Eagles in matches starting at 1 p.m. This will be Soap Lake’s third match of the week after taking on Bridgeport on Tuesday and Cashmere on Thursday.