The Central Cyclones were looking forward to a rematch against the Peacock Toilers and were quite happy with the outcome.
The Cyclones made a couple of changes to their game plan on Thursday evening in senior girls volleyball action and the Toilers just didn’t bring what they had hoped for.
“That’s the challenge with volleyball is making sure your mental game is just as tough as your tactical and making sure you can execute the things you want to execute,” stated Peacock’s coach Jenn Prokopetz. “We just didn’t have it tonight…it is unfortunate.”
Mental errors caused a lot of problems for the Toilers in their 3-1 loss to the Cyclones, but to Central’s credit, they played with a lot more intensity. They won the opening set 25-20, dropped the second set 25-19, then won the final two sets 25-21 and 25-19.
“Volleyball is a game of errors and I think it came down to that tonight, but the good thing is that that is always something in our control,” said Prokopetz. “The thing is that our effort was there and we were really trying, but we just couldn’t get it done. I think Central prepared really well and they played well.”
Central focused on some of the areas that needed fine tuning in practice and it seemed to pay off for them.
“From our practice yesterday (Wednesday), I thought we worked a lot on tips and dumping and picking up our defence. I think that helped a lot,” said Cyclones captain Sidney Holoien. “When we are quiet, we can’t pick our game up as well and we are more confident when we talk.”
Both teams battled hard in each set and players were sacrificing their bodies in order to keep the ball and rally alive for long stretches. If either team gave up a point, fans could tell by the look on the players faces, just how much each digit meant.
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
