Eagles defeat Republic, improve to 6-0

SOAP LAKE – The Eagles improved to 6-0 on the court with Saturday’s 3-0 sweep of Republic, defeating the Tigers with set scores of 25-10, 25-23 and 25-17. 

It’s the second time Soap Lake has played against Republic this season, having previously won 3-0 on the road Sept. 10. 

“We know that (Republic) can be a tough team because we’ve already seen them once,” head coach Niki Noble said. “We came in ready to play as good volleyball as we could – play our game and go from there.” 

Soap Lake won the first set 25-10, outscoring the Tigers 20-7 down the stretch of the set. 

    Soap Lake junior Mylee Dana (1) serves the ball during the second set against Republic on Saturday.
  

Despite winning big in the first set, Soap Lake had to battle it out in the second set. After Republic tied the set at 22 on an ace, Soap Lake scored on three of the final four rallies to win 25-23 and go up 2-0 in the match. 

“Sometimes winning a set by a lot puts girls at ease, and then they come out maybe a little too confident,” Noble said. “Start making a few mental mistakes, which is what happened in that second set. We just have to reset and get back to how we play.” 

Junior Brooke Dana said coming together as a team helped the Eagles pull out the win in the second set.

“When we started getting hyped and doing our chants, we got into it,” Dana said. “We just worked together and talked to each other. That helps get (us) out of our heads as well.” 

The two sides traded leads through the first 18 rallies of the third set, leading to a 9-9 tie before Soap Lake scored 10-straight points and eventually won the set 25-17, leading to a 3-0 sweep of Republic.

“Confidence, also not letting our heads get in the way,” Dana said of how the Eagles won Saturday’s match. “Just playing our hardest; we’re very scrappy, and that’s a good characteristic that we have. Half these plays, I don’t even know how they go over.” 

    Soap Lake players celebrate after scoring a point during Saturday’s 3-0 win over Republic.
  

Noble said the team focused on Republic’s outside hitting and serving ahead of Saturday’s match, taking that experience away from their Sept. 10 matchup. 

“They have a couple of great servers, so we did a lot of serve-receive practice,” Noble said. “We switched up – in general, not just for this match – our defense a little bit so that we’re covering areas a little bit better. It seemed to pay off today.” 

Soap Lake is 4-0 in Central Washington 1B matches this season, having swept Easton, Thorp and Wilson Creek to go along with a 3-2 win at MLCA/CCS on Sept. 24. The Eagles return to league play Tuesday with a home game against Oroville. 

“We’re still growing and we’re still practicing various things, seeing what works,” Noble said. “This is just the sixth match we’ve played – we still have quite a few ahead of us. We have a big week next week, and we need to make sure that we have all that down before we play some of the teams that are at the top of the league.” 

Box score 

RPBC: 10-23-17 0 

SPLK: 25-25-25 3