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Photo by Mick Eagleson/The Advocate
The Saints volleyball team gives a cheer at the end of a match earlier in the year. The Saints have been working on communication every week and are starting to come together as a team, according to Head Coach Chelsie Freeman. The Saints compete today in the Pierce Crossover Tournament at Lakewood, Wash.
Saints sweep Cougars in three
The Advocate
With more than half season under their belt, the Saints volleyball team sits on top of Southern Region standings with a 5-0 record and 17-4 overall.
“We have hit our stride,” said Head Coach Chelsie Freeman. “We are finally coming together after our last match and we are preparing to make a run at (the) NWAACCs.”
The most recent match was Friday against Clackamas Community College, which sits in third place in the Southern Region with a conference record of 3-2. The Lady Saints won the match in three straight sets (25-15, 26-24, 25-17).
“This was the best match we have played,” said Freeman. “It was nice to see the girls finally come together and have fun on the court. It was fun to watch from the sideline with my assistant coach (Stephanie Alleman).”
According to Freeman, standout players were everywhere in the match.
“Liz Williams did extremely well for us,” Freeman said. “She got a lot of digs.”
She said freshman Kyra Speer had another strong performance for the Saints with 18 kills and hit .387. Kelsey Kai had 20 digs.
Freeman said she feels the team is ready to have a good showing in this week’s tournament. “We were having issues with keeping players healthy and with last week only having one practice before last week’s game. We are doing amazing,” Freeman said.
This weekend the Saints travel to Lakewood, Wash., to compete in the NWAACC Western Region Volleyball Crossover Tournament hosted by the Pierce Community College Raiders. The team plays five games today and one on Saturday in round robin play.
In game one, the women will take on Olympic Community College at 1 p.m. In game two at 4 p.m. the women face off against the Chemeketa Storm who they beat earlier in the year in five sets. For game three, the women take on the number one team in NWAACCs, the Tacoma Titans, at 5:30 p.m. Game four is set against Pierce at 7 p.m. In the final match of the night, the Saints take on Walla Walla at 8:30 p.m. On Saturday at 10:30 a.m., the women take on Everett Community College to wrap up the round robin play that creates the seeding for the bracket play that starts at 12:30 p.m. The tournament is single elimination.
“This will be a crazy tournament for us,” said Freeman. “We play back-to-back-to-back-to back-to-back matches. How will we eat in between?”
As for the team, freshman Esmeralda Orozco says the key to winning is through the team’s communication.
“Our communication and heart will be the key in this tournament to be on top,” said Orozco. “There will be tough teams competing and we know it. But we also know we can do it.”
Freeman says she thinks MHCC has an excellent shot to win the tournament.
“We face off first against Olympic and I am not to worried about them.
We also faced off against Chemeketa and Tacoma this year and beat them both. I think we have a great shot to do well but these back-to-back games are just going (to) be really hard to deal with,” she said.
As for where the team sits now, the Saints have nothing but success to build on. All the players are back from being sick, and freshman setter Taylor Canoso was also back in action at practice Monday.
“We have everybody back now,” said Freeman. “We are ready to make the deep run and we are expecting nothing less than winning as a team.”
In order to be successful for the rest of the season, Freeman just wants the women to focus on what she keeps preaching in practice.
“For us to win, the girls (have to) understand what we teach them in practice is going to help them win on the floor,” Freeman said. “Defense is what we have been working on and we are getting very good at it, with less dropped balls and more digs.”
On Wednesday, the women pick up league play again and return to MHCC to play the Linn-Benton Roadrunners in its first home match since Sept. 26 The Saints were dominant in the last meeting while being short on players and winning the match in four sets.
As for being undefeated in conference play and fourth in NWAACCs behind the number one team, Tacoma, Freeman likes her team’s position.
“I don't care too much about the standings,” said Freeman. “Even though we beat Tacoma early on, I like to be underestimated. It makes me push the team harder and work harder for an NWAACC title.”
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