Maidens come up short against Whitefish in conference loss
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RONAN — Illness and changes in the lineup took their toll on the Maidens Thursday as they fell in their second Northwestern A Conference match of the season, losing to visiting Whitefish 27-25, 17-25, 18-25, 23-25.
“We had seven girls gone throughout the week with illnesses. To have some of the major players who are usually there out, and to have to change things to adjust, that is very hard on the girls,” Maidens’ head coach Naomi Mock said. “We had some people who hadn’t played with each other in a game situation besides just having to sub in at a spot. Now, those players had to play through a whole rotation. I think that led to some of our problems but then we also just had a few players having off nights. We can’t all always have good nights all the time, unfortunately.”
The Maidens came out on a roll in the opening game of the match, jumping out to a quick 5-1 lead behind the serving of Taylor Lynch. Ronan went up by as many as five points on several occasions before the Lady Bulldogs came back to tie the contest at 22.
Whitefish later had a chance to get the win in game one. With the Lady Bulldogs up 24-23, a lift call tied the game at 24, but Whitefish quickly scored again and had another chance at the win. A serving error tied the game at 25 before a kill by Alice Van Gunten gave Ronan a 26-25 advantage. Van Gunten tipped the ball past the defense for the next point as Ronan took game one, 27-25.
The Maidens fell behind early in game two and never recovered, giving up several points in the game for being out of rotation in a 17-25 loss.
“I’m not really sure what that was. It was just a moment of chaos and they just got out of rotation,” Mock said. “It’s something we really haven’t had a problem with even though we are asking them to do something different than they did last year. It was going to have to happen sooner or later, I guess.”
Game three was much the same as Whitefish jumped out to a quick 9-1 lead as Ronan struggled to find points.
“They could get a little lost at times. You get used to having one person next to you all of the time and then they are not there,” Mock said. “It’s a mental adjustment and it makes it a little more difficult.”
The Maidens never pulled closer than six points in game three as they fell, 18-25.
Ronan looked like a different team in game four as the Maidens found ways to attack the Whitefish defense to grab an early 9-6 advantage.
“Sometimes we just let ourselves slide. I don’t know if you call it a funk or what, but we just get out of it from time to time,” Mock said. “Once they start having fun and come back out of it, then they start playing very well.”
The game continued to be close down the stretch but the Lady Bulldogs pulled away at the end to win the game and the match.
While the loss drops the Maidens to 1-1 in conference play, coach Mock is happy with where her team is headed.
“We’re stepping in the right direction. This program hasn’t had a really big winning streak yet. Slowly but surely, we are getting there,” she said. “It’s keeping everything happening at the same level all of the time, always. We haven’t quite put that all together yet. Once they realize that they can put it all together, it’ll be dangerous, I think.”
Summary
Whitefish def. Ronan
25-27, 25-17, 25-18, 25-23쇓
