Regional Rumble here Saturday

ROSALIA–The Lady Pirates are improving week by week, says Head Coach Adam Van Vogt, coming off a pair of wins last week against Dayton and Tekoa-Rosalia. Pomeory won 25-14, 25-11, 25-14 over Dayton, then won in five sets against the T-R, 25-15, 25-23, 16-25, 12-25, 15-13.

Games this week are on the road, leading to this Saturday's Regional Rumble here. Pomeroy played at Colton last Tuesday and visits DeSales tonight. Next Tuesday's match is at Garfield-Palouse. The team is 3-2 in league, 3-3 overall.

"I think we've improved every single week," commented Van Vogt, "an accomplishment for which these girls deserve a ton of credit.

The match against Dayton, Van Vogt said, may have been the Lady Pirates' best match of the season in terms of serve receive, defense, staying low, communicating, and keeping unforced errors to a minimum in rallies.

"We consistently pulled away from Dayton by bouncing back with a positive play seemingly every time we would let them score a point," he said. They recovered from adversity and moved on.

That mindset proved to be a little tougher in Rosalia against T/R, Van Vogt said. "We won the first two games and were up in game three when several close calls went against us in close succession. It seemed to affect our mindset, gave them life, and opened the door for them to make a run.

"This run led to them winning game three and then the fourth set," he said. "Our girls regrouped and played an outstanding game five to win in a tough environment."

While Van Vogt would have preferred to tie up the match in three games, the experience "will be a positive in the long run. We confirmed we can take a game on the road and with circumstances not going in our favor," Van Vogt said.

"We also learned that we can close out a team and that lesson is really valuable," he said. "A lot of teams who drop games 3 and 4 after winning the first two fold and don't bounce back."

The team served 91%. Stat leaders were Haliee Brewer: 10 kills and 3 aces on 14/15 serving; Hannah Bagby: 6 kills, 6 aces on 15/16 serving; Taylor Gilbert: 12 kills, 4 digs with 16/18 serving; Haven Kimble: 16 assists and 10/11 serving; Atalya Mitchell: 11 assists and 5/6 serving; Carmen Fruh: 6 kills and 7/8 serving.

Versus Dayton, Gilbert had 9 kills and 6 aces; Fruh 4 kills, 2 blocks, and 4 aces on 13/14 serving; Haliee Brewer 4 kills; Bethany Zimmerman 5 digs; Bagby 10/10 serving with 2 kills and an ace; Kimble- 12 assists and 2 aces on 11/13 serving.