Lady Vikings can't finish what they started in loss to Yaks
MOSES LAKE - The Big Bend Community College volleyball team might want to adopt the mantra "finish what you started."
The Lady Vikings have looked sharp in the early portions of recent games. But they've struggled to close out opponents, and that trend repeated itself Wednesday night as the Yakima Valley Yaks beat the Vikings 30-24, 31-29, 30-24 at DeVries Activity Center.
Big Bend had seemingly comfortable leads in games two and three, only to see the Yaks roar back to life and eventually steal the victories. Head coach Michael De Hoog said it's a pattern he's becoming frustrated with.
"We're just lacking that edge to finish off the match," De Hoog said. "if we finished the games the way we started, we should be pretty successful."
With the loss, Big Bend dropped to 1-4 in Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges play. The Vikings try to regroup Friday at Walla Walla.
Trailing 11-6 in game one, Big Bend faced more adversity after starting middle blocker Natalie Lindley was carried off the floor with an injury to her right knee. De Hoog said she was taken to a local hospital for X-rays, but didn't have any further information on the freshman's status.
"I hope and pray she's all right because she's a big part of the team," De Hoog said.
Lindley's replacement, Kaitie Poston, performed admirably and was one of the reasons Big Bend nearly pulled out a couple victories. The 5-foot-10 freshman from Bonners Ferry, Idaho, finished with seven kills, three digs and two aces. De Hoog explained that Lindley, Poston and Kortney Klein are all relatively interchangeable at the middle position.
"All three of them have different strengths," he said. "I feel completely comfortable with any of those girls stepping in and playing. It's almost a different starting middle every time we play."
Klein, a freshman from Huntley, Mont., was one of four Vikings with seven kills. She also went 11 of 12 from the service line with an ace. Hers was a welcome presence, De Hoog said, because she's been out with a sprained ankle and strep throat already this season.
"I thought Kortney played really well tonight in the middle," he said.
The Vikings grabbed a sizable lead early in game two, but Yakima Valley kept inching closer and finally overtook Big Bend. A 7-0 Viking run to start game three - fueled by the serves of Taisha Haines - was quickly erased as Yakima's Kara Biederstedt served eight straight points. Big Bend took a 14-10 lead with another 7-0 run before the Yaks took over.
Nikki Hernandez had a match-high 18 kills for the Yaks and added 10 digs. Erika Hanson distributed 39 assists and two blocks.
Ali Walen and Niki Forsberg each had seven kills for Big Bend. Laura Tinnell dished out 32 assists and libero Jhenesis Garza had 20 digs. Those are the kinds of numbers De Hoog likes to see - no one player dominated the stat sheet.
"We really like a balanced attack," he said. "We're not blessed with a lot of height, bbut we have a lot of athletic kids and we try to run a lot of plays sets to use our quickness."