Lady Pirates Fall Twice On Day One Of Coffeyville Tournament
September 7, 2018
Coffeyville, Kan. - Coming off their first conference win, the Independence Lady Pirates headed to rival Coffeyville to compete in a two-day tournament in which they would face four opponents. The action started Friday night against the MCC Wolves and Coffeyville Red Ravens.
The Lady Pirates battled very hard against the fierce competition but were unable to put together a winning effort in either match falling 3-0 to both opponents.
"Tonight, was very tough as hard as we fought," coach Daniela Pena said. "We had a lot of players coming off the bench for the first time and we knew the competition would be tough."
"We can still achieve our goal of winning the conference if we work hard and prepare better both mentally and physically."
In match number one against MCC, the first set began with the Wolves drawing first blood on two consecutive aces to take an early 2-0 lead. Independence got a kill from Noleyshka Santiago and a block from Kiersten Vincent tying the score at 2-2.
MCC went on a 4-0 run before hitting the ball out of bounds to give the Lady Pirates a point but several miscues occurred, and the Wolves pushed the lead out to 10-3. Destiny Thomas broke up the 2-0 run with a kill, but MCC continued to capitalize on errors from Independence on a 5-3 run making the score 15-6.
The Lady Pirates gave up three more points on a 3-1 run pushing the MCC lead to 18-7. A 2-1 run capped by a kill from Patricia Seller brought the score to 19-9, but the Wolves went on a 6-3 run to take the first set 25-12.
The second set began a lot smoother for Independence as its defense tightened up with kills and blocks from Santiago, Vincent and Briana Prescott impacted the set heavily, but MCC still held the lead 11-9.Prescott broke up a 3-0 run by the Wolves and the Lady Pirates cut the Wolves' lead to 13-10.
A kill by Hannia Rios and a ball hit out of bounds followed by an ace from Shelymar Diaz cut the lead to 14-13, but two consecutive kills from MCC made it 16-13 and a 3-2 run from the Wolves extended the lead to 19-15.
Independence battled back with kills from Prescott and consecutive aces by Natasha Colon cutting the lead to 21-19 and blocks from Thomas and Prescott cut it down to 22-21, but a ball hit out of bounds pushed the Wolves' lead to 23-21 before Prescott connected again bringing the Lady Pirates within one.
A 2-1 run for Independence tied the set at 24-24 and a kill from Colon gave the Lady Pirates their first lead at 25-24. The Lady Pirates battled but a 3-0 MCC run gave the Wolves a 27-25 set victory and a 2-0 lead.
In the third set, early miscues and blocks gave MCC a 7-1 lead. A kill from Santiago broke up the Wolves' run, but MCC fired back strong on a 5-0 run pushing the score to 12-2. Santiago delivered another kill and a 2-1 run capped by a kill from Colon made the score 13-5.
Independence scored on another kill by Thomas, but the Wolves responded on a 4-1 run making it 17-7. MCC closed out the set on an 8-6 run winning 25-13 and the Lady Pirates dropped the match 3-0.
In match number two against Coffeyville, Independence came out very well with kills from Destiny Thomas on back to back possessions, but errors and consecutive kills gave the Red Ravens a 7-5 early advantage.
The error bug seemed to have gotten to Coffeyville on consecutive possessions to tie the set at 7-7, but consecutive kills gave them the lead again 9-7. A 4-2 run was in effect for the Lady Pirates with Thomas back on the attack and the set was tied at 11-11.
Briana Prescott threw down a kill with impact cutting the lead to 14-13 as part of a 3-2 Coffeyville run, but back to back kills pushed the Red Ravens to a 16-13 lead. Independence pushed back and forth but a 3-2 run pushed the lead to 19-15 in favor of the Red Ravens.
The Lady Pirates fought hard throughout the set with kills from Thomas, Prescott and Natasha Colon but a 6-6 even run ended the set giving Coffeyville the win 25-21 and the lead.
The second set began on a 6-1 run for the Red Ravens but a kill by Prescott and an ace from Kylie Shanahan cut the lead to 6-3. Coffeyville later regained the advantage as errors and miscommunications gave up points for Independence on a 9-1 pushing the lead to 15-4.
The Lady Pirates put together some very nice plays to try and make things interesting, but it wasn't quite enough as Coffeyville ended the set on a 10-7 run to win 25-11 and take a 2-0 lead.
In the third set, Independence had no answer early on, giving up a 5-1 lead. Destiny Thomas threw a ball in to the court with authority followed by a kill from Briana Prescott and two errors to tie the set at 5-5, but miscues continued to haunt the Lady Pirates when the Red Ravens put together a 5-1 run to lead 10-6.
Independence went on a 4-3 run to cut the lead to 13-10, but back to back kills pushed the lead to five. Thomas and Prescott along with libero Anachariz Cruz continued to perform well with digs, kills and blocks, but a 10-5 run from Coffeyville gave the Red Ravens the set, 25-15 and the win 3-0.
Independence falls to 3-4 overall and returns to Coffeyville tomorrow to take on the NEO Lady Norse and Neosho County Panthers at 5 pm and 7pm.