Lady Pirates Drop Five-Set Thriller At NEO To Close Out Preseason
August 21, 2018
MIAMI, Okla. - On Tuesday, the Lady Pirates traveled to Miami, Oklahoma to take on the 14th ranked NEO Lady Norse of Division II in the final preseason scrimmage of 2018.
The Lady Pirates would drop the final preseason contest in five sets after leading 2-0. Despite the loss, Independence showed flashes to have a great season.
"Our mindset has always been to work hard and improve everyday with practice," coach Daniela Pena said. "However, in order to improve we must realize the things that we need to improve upon such as all of the different behaviors that cannot be tolerated in the heat of competition."
"We were very inconsistent in the last three sets and against a team like this (NEO), if you give them a little bit of breath they will put everything on your side of the court which unfortunately is what happened tonight. All that I would like to see leading up to Wednesday is a little more confidence from our players in practice and execution in competition."
In the first set, the Lady Pirates led 4-1 after several NEO errors and a dynamic kill by Kiersten Vincent. After a 4-2 run of several errors and a huge block by Vincent and Destiny Thomas the Independence lead was extended to 8-3.
The Lady Norse were not going to go away easily as a 6-1 NEO run tied the contest at 9-9. The two squads battled back and forth but a 6-3 run had the Lady Norse ahead 15-12. Kills by Jessie Lewman and Kiersten Vincent as part of a 3-0 Independence run had the contest tied once again at 15-15.
Assists by Hannia Rios and digs by Kylie Shanahan set up a monster kill from Thomas to cap off a 3-1 run giving the Lady Pirates a 18-16 advantage. A 4-3 run later in the set would push the Independence lead to 22-19.
Kills by Natasha Colon and Lewman followed by a NEO service error capped off a 3-1 run giving the Lady Pirates the first set 25-20.
In the second set, a block from Bri Prescott capped off a 3-1 run for Independence as the tempo seemed to be going in the right direction and it would continue into another 3-1 run after Thomas continued to put on a show with yet another kill making it 6-2 in favor of the Lady Pirates.
At the first timeout of the second set, the Lady Pirates led 9-3 after a kill by Colon capped the third 3-1 run of the contest for Independence, but NEO would not back down going on a 3-0 run of their own cutting the Independence lead to 9-6.
Errors and miscues by both teams played a huge part of the following 7-6 NEO run, but the Lady Pirates continued to hold to the lead 15-13. An assist by Shanahan later in the set gave way to a kill by Kaitlyn Meyer as part of a 5-4 Independence run giving the Lady Pirates a 20-17 advantage.
NEO tied the set at 21-21 after errors and hits into the net, but Independence fired back with a 4-0 run winning the set 25-21 and taking a 2-0 lead in the match.
The third set saw the Lady Pirates strike first, but it was the Lady Norse who would go on a 3-1 run to take the early advantage. NEO continued to dominate the set after a 4-0 run, giving them a 7-1 lead at the set's first timeout.
Things were looking rough for Independence, but a 5-4 run saw the Lady Pirates cut the lead to 11-6 until a run of 7-2 pushed the Lady Norse lead to 18-8. Back to back kills by Vincent cut the lead to 18-10, but NEO scored consecutive points pushing their lead to 20-10.
The Lady Pirates outscored NEO on a 3-0 run, but the Lady Norse closed out the third set on a 5-3 run taking the set 25-16 and cutting the Independence match lead to 2-1.
The fourth set began with a 3-3 run, capped by yet another huge kill by Thomas, but back to back errors tied the set at 4-4. The contest continued to be neck and neck but a kill by Lewman followed by a block out of bounds gave the Lady Pirates a 7-5 advantage.
A 5-4 run extended the Independence lead to 12-9, but a 5-4 Lady Norse run cut the lead to 16-14. A 4-1 run gave NEO a 18-17 lead, but the Lady Pirates battled back on a 2-0 run to lead 19-18.
NEO answered with a 3-0 run of their own to lead 21-19 and Independence battled but a 5-4 run handed the Lady Norse the set 25-23, tying the match at 2-2.
The match came down to a fifth set to decide the match and the Lady Pirates came out hot to take a 2-1 advantage early, but a 7-1 run saw NEO hold the lead at 8-3 as the two squads switched sides. After the switch, Independence answered on a 2-0 run, but the Lady Norse fired back extending the lead to 10-5.
The Lady Pirates cut into the lead as part of a 3-3 run, but NEO closed out the set 15-9 to take the match 3-2.
Next up for the Lady Pirates is the regular season opener Wednesday August 29 at home against KJCCC Western Division opponent, the 9th ranked Seward County Lady Saints.