Patriot VB Jumps to 3-0 Start
By: Kennedy Settje, a junior at Leigh High School
After an exciting win on Tuesday night against the Howells-Dodge Jaguars, the Clarkson-Leigh Patriots loaded up the bus for a triangular with Stanton and Madison on September 3 to finish out their week. The varsity swept both teams, bringing their record to 3-0 to start the season!
The JV’s first game was played against the Madison Dragons. They played a great match and it showed as they came out with the win. Their next competition was vs the Stanton Mustangs. This game proved to be more challenging. The Patriots couldn't keep up with what the Mustangs had going. They ended up losing the game. The JV’s split games for this triangular.
Varsity’s first match up was also the Dragons. They came into the game ready to take them in two sets, and they did just that. The Patriots got their passes right to target and took advantage of it. They ran quicks and tried some things they haven’t done much yet this season, and this resulted in a first set final score of 25-13. The second set of the game was a quick one. The Patriots dominated on the serve game. They rallied off 18 points straight taking an 18-0 lead and finishing the game out 25-4.
The Patriots’ next game was against a well-rounded Stanton team. The Patriots’ energy showed from the moment they stepped onto the court. Going on serve runs, running quicks, and picking up the Mustangs attacks, the Patriots were feeling it. They got the lead and never looked back, finishing the first set 25-13.
The second set of the game started off very slow for the Patriots. Digging themselves a 0-6 lead to start the game was not what they were expecting. They earned a couple points back, until the Mustangs went on another big run. Clarkson-Leigh was behind Stanton by 9 points at one point in the game.
This did not stop the Patriots. They stayed calm and collected and showed no sign of panic. This proved to be successful for them, as they came back and tied the game 21-21. At this point the Patriots pulled ahead and ended up on top with a score of 25-22.
This marks the first time the Patriots have beaten Stanton in many years.
Junior setter Makenna Held at this to say about the games:
“Our triangular yesterday went very well. This year we’ve been really playing good together as a team and our vibe is awesome. I can’t wait to see what’s ahead of us this season. We are all excited to try to keep our win streak going!”
Head Coach Becky Schneider agreed with Held.
“In Thursday's triangular, we definitely played Patriot volleyball! One major aspect of our game that stands out the most was our passing game! Our passing was stellar in both matches! We got the ball where it needed to go and definitely capitalized on every free ball that came our way! We were also able to serve aggressively and get both teams out of system quite a bit. We thought Stanton handled the out-of-system ball a lot better than Madison and were able to at least make an aggressive play on the ball, which threw us off at times!
Madison didn't bring much of a competitive edge, but we were still able to play our game! We had great passing, we kept our offense quick, and we were able to capitalize when we needed to. We also did a nice job of taking care of the ball and limited the amount of errors on our end.”
The Stanton match was more competitive and pushed us out of our comfort zone. The first set we were able to take control, attack aggressively, and make them make mistakes! The second set we struggled a little bit. They made some adjustments and we couldn't quite handle it. We were down most of that set, but we kept our composure and kept fighting through it. Not once did we feel like we gave up or panicked. The girls were able to play through it and came out on top! We were able to finish and that's a huge mental gain especially being down most of the set.”
Overall, we are very pleased with our performances! We just need to keep pushing forward and continue to take strides forward!”