Volleyball: ROADTRIP RUINED
By BRANDON HURLEY
Sports Editor
Fort Dodge – A lack of confidence combined with misfires and miscommunications spelled doom in Paton-Churdan’s season-ending loss to St. Edmond Tuesday, Oct. 18 in 1A regional action. The Gaels (9-18) controlled the first round, region five match with a three set sweep in Fort Dodge, winning 25-19, 25-20 and 25-13.
Wild strikes and momentum killing service errors played a significant role Tuesday. Paton-Churdan (7-12) was 43-53 from the service line while sending 19 kill attempts off the mark.
The Gaels often found the Rockets out of position, finding open holes over the net for easy points.
“We got a little too tentative here and there and we did that all year,” Paton-Churdan head coach John Johnson said. “We hung in there really well when we got the pass up and played aggressive ball. We let some balls fall and that hurt us.”
The Rockets jumped out to an early 4-1 lead in the first set but St. Edmond stormed back with a 7-0 run to take a 8-4 lead thanks to a handful of poor Rocket serves. Paton-Churdan fought back as well to tie it at 10.
The teams traded points from there on, as the foes shared mini-3-0 runs to get to 15-all. St. Edmond jumped out to a small lead before P-C tied it again, this time at 18. Three straight kills from the Gael front court pushed their lead to 24-19, one they would never relinquish. Sophomore Jenna Beyers sent a kill long over the endline completing St. Edmond’s 5-0 run for the set win.
The second set was more of the same back-and-forth battle, as St. Edmond roared out to a quick 6-2 lead before Paton-Churdan inched it’s way closer to tie it at eight apiece. Mishits stuck with the Rocket defense as they sent several digs flying all over the court in addition to wild kill attempts. The teams traded runs once again and the Gaels took advantage of several P-C errors to jumpstart a 6-0 run for a 15-9 lead. The Rockets followed that run up with one of their own and closed the gap to 15-13, but several hesitant moments and more mishits allowed St. Edmond to eventually take the set.
“In that first set, we got a couple of points and played aggressive but then St. Edmond got on a nice little run. That started with us letting the ball fall. The same thing happened in the second set, we were ahead, 18-16, then we hesitated and let the ball fall then they went on a run.”
A rejuvenated Rocket squad blasted off to a 5-1 lead in the third and final set, but the rally faded quickly as the Gaels once again stormed back. Miscues allowed the Gaels to tie the score at five and take an 9-6 lead thanks to an 8-1 run. The advantage ballooned to 14-9 later in the set as the St. Edmond offense continued to find holes in the Paton-Churdan defense. The Rockets would run off a mini-run to close to 16-11 before the Gaels eventually pulled off a 9-2 run to end the match. Any semblance of a rally in the third set vanished thanks to poor serves.
“In the last set, we got out of whack with the score and we didn’t handle it real well and they started freaking out a little bit. The tentativeness in the first couple of sets played a huge role,” Johnson said. “If you win a long volley, that gets your team jacked up a little bit, but then when you serve the ball into the net, it’s a big downer. We did miss some serves. Some of them we weren’t tossing it real well and then we were tentative on that too. It’s about playing hard every time you step on the court.”
Beyers and sophomore Megan Carey led the way with seven kills apiece in addition to Beyers’ 11 digs. Junior Grace Geisler contributed 13 digs of her own while serving a perfect 12-for-12 on the night. Faith Davis and Mariah Tasler added 10 and eight digs, respectively, and kept several points alive. As a team, the Rockets recorded 52 digs.
Paton-Churdan finished the year with just seven wins, but Johnson saw some real progress throughout the year, especially when trying to build leads, but couldn’t maintain them consistently. Tuesday’s tentative play was a common theme throughout the season, the coach said.
“At the beginning of the year, it was lack of experience, and it’s still that way. We didn’t learn how to come out and play hard every point. For a team like (ours) that hasn’t had a lot of success in volleyball, they don’t quite know how to win and that’s challenging as a coach,” Johnson said. “The only way to learn how to win is to win. In the overall scheme of things, Paton-Churdan has never had a real solid volleyball program. It’s a little bit of a disadvantage for the girls.”
The ability to run an offense and fight back with rallies of their own was something Johnson really saw develop late in the season. The coach envisions big things when the girls commence again next fall. Just one senior graduates from the 2016 squad.
“At the beginning of the season, our ball control was terrible. So how far we’ve come from then to now is a huge difference,” the coach said. “And we are just going to keep getting better next year and I’m excited to be able to come back. I think some really nice things are going to happen next year.”
St. Edmond will host Rolling Valley Conference-champion Glidden-Ralston at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24.
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