Volleyball looking for first conference win
After dropping every match the past three weeks, CEU’s volleyball team has had a rough go. “The team is definitely struggling,” said a frustrated Coach Brent Martindale, “they don’t have the confidence they need to win games.”
The team went on a long road-trip, facing Salt Lake Community College Bruins on October 14 and then rode an 18-hour bus ride to Cour de Alene, Idaho where they played North Idaho College on the 16th.
The team again struggled against the Bruins, losing all three games 16-30, 17-30, and 15-30. Martindale said that this was the worst team-hitting match of the year.
This archived article was written by: Josh Luke
After dropping every match the past three weeks, CEU’s volleyball team has had a rough go. “The team is definitely struggling,” said a frustrated Coach Brent Martindale, “they don’t have the confidence they need to win games.”
The team went on a long road-trip, facing Salt Lake Community College Bruins on October 14 and then rode an 18-hour bus ride to Cour de Alene, Idaho where they played North Idaho College on the 16th.
The team again struggled against the Bruins, losing all three games 16-30, 17-30, and 15-30. Martindale said that this was the worst team-hitting match of the year.
From Salt Lake the team traveled to Northern Idaho where they didn’t fare any better. They again lost all three games, 22-30, 10-30 and 17-30. In this game they were tied at 22 in the first game and then lost their momentum. Jen Fisher had five kills with Amy Warburton four kills.
After struggling through these two games the team came home in hopes of getting a break and winning the next two games at home. The team started out their home stand on Friday, playing against Dixie State College in front of an exited crowd.
The team again struggled throughout each game and lost the match in three straight games.. The scores were 18-30, 18-30 and 27-30. The bright spots for the Eagles were Amy Warburton’s eight kills and Grace Hunsaker’s six kills with only one error.
The next day after loosing to Dixie, the team hoped to have a better outing playing against Snow College. CEU Eagles played well in the first game as they were serving for game point 29-27. At this point in the game the team lost its focus and ended up loosing 30-32. The team then fell apart and lost the next two games 22-30 and 21-30. Amy Warburton led the team in this game with 13 kills, Cassidy Dawes had seven kills and Jen Fisher had six kills.
Coach Martindale said that he thought that the team is definitely struggling. He also said that it has been a very tough year because in the last three out of four years the team has had over a .500 record at home. He also said that the team seems to play pretty well for the first half of the game, and then loses composure, makes lots of mistakes and errors, which the other teams capitalize on.
Martindale said, “Another thing to think about is the fact that out of the six teams in this conference, there are four of them that are ranked in the top 25 in the nation.” He also said that the team is out-blocking almost every team they play.
Another important side-note is that last Friday the nationally-ranked, two-year college powerhouse, College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, Idaho, was put on probation by the NJCAA for recruiting violations of international players. The team has 15 days to file an appeal, which if they win, the team standings remain. But if the suspension stands, then their entire season will be void and they will lose their national ranking and the possibility of post-season play. .
The team played on October 27 against College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. Scores were not available at press time. Then they play Northern Idaho on October 28 (tonight) in Price at 7 p.m. at the BDAC.
