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The Rice Lady Raiders hosted a tournament this past week and matched up against a variety of competition.
One of the teams they ended up matching up against was the Palacios Sharkettes, and the Lady Raiders ended up losing that game.
The Lady Raiders lost but in a match that was the best of three sets they took Palacios the distance using all three sets to decide the winner. In the first set the Lady Raiders held the lead, but Palacios came storming back and won the set 25-23.
In the second set it was the same story but this time the Lady Raiders were able to score consecutive points late in the set to win it 25-23. In the third set the Lady Raiders came out a little flat against Palacios and fell into a 6-2 hole that they could not climb out of.
The Lady Raiders made it close but unfortunately, they were on the losing side of the third set to end the match.
Now, the Lady Raiders lost this game, but they held their own throughout the match and were very compet it ive the entire time. Lady Raiders Head Coach Morgan Hunter said they just need to find a way to be just a little bit more consistent to help them get over the hump and close out sets quicker.
“Overall, I would say consistency. I think it is very hit or miss right now, we are seeing it from our players at times and other times not so much,” Hunter said. “We have been working with the girls on that, we have and some discussions about blocking and taking a lane defensively, so as soon as we get back in a practice environment, we are definitely going to be working on those things because I think it will help us.”
While Hunter was critical of her team after the loss she made sure to touch on just how much her team had improved only a month into the season.
“ There’s big a couple of things for us, the non-vol leybal l related improvements we talk about being a good teammate, being positive and having a role whatever that role looks l ike for them, if that’s on the bench or on the court,” Hunter said. “We have also talked about accountabil ity whenever something happens. Like when errors happen being able to say ‘I the player made the mistake, and I take ownership of it’ and then having good teammates come to them pick them back up and we can keep moving forward as a team. I also think our serving aggressiveness is something that we have been working on in practice and it really shows in our game.”
While this game was dur ing a tournament and it can be tough to draw a crowd especially for a game in the middle of the day. But the Lady Raiders were fortunate enough to have some of their fellow students come to their game against Pa lacios and Hunter said it’s exciting to see and hear the students at the games.
“It has been fun hosting and having home court advantage. Our 6th graders and their PE class were here yesterday, and they were even cheering ‘Let’s go Raiders’ and ‘Go Big Blue’ and we were not even on the court,” Hunter said with a chuckle. “It was honestly awesome to hear people cheering for our team in the gym even though we weren’t even on the court. So, it’s exciting to see the team spirit building not just in the school but also in the community.”
The Lady Raiders will take this loss and learn from it and look ahead in their schedule when they take on the Shiner Lady Comanches on Friday, Sept 5, at 6 p.m.
