Moser Collects First Collegiate Win

A busy week for the Viking Volleyball program playing three matches in three days as BBCC prepared for two matches versus Wenatchee Valley and Spokane Falls September 8th at the Devries Actvity Center.

Head Coach Alexa Moser had this to say entering Friday. "With a quick turn around from our home opener on Wednesday, our main focus was on ourselves. Wednesday night against the Timberwolves didn't turn out in our favor but after breaking down our film and going over stats, it's like we were playing ourselves. We weren't applying pressure to the Wolves, a lot of unforced errors were made. So our one practice before our next 2 matches was filled with a lot of serve receive to work on our passing so that we could be running an in system offense to give our hitters a better chance of putting balls away. Focus on our side first and get the other team out of system, not just swinging to swing, placing balls in deep corners of the court and making their defense move."

Game one versus the Knights did not go in favor of the Lady Vikes as the defense was able to keep their heads above water but the offense could not keep up with WVC. With scores of 25-15, 25-22 and 25-13 in favor of the Knights, Wenatchee was able to put the Lady Vikes away in three straight sets. Reflecting on game one Moses stated "Our first match of the day against Wenatchee was a hard fought battle despite the scores and dropping 3 straight sets. There were a lot of long rallies happening. One of our biggest strengths as a team is our defense but it also turns into our biggest weakness because we keep ourselves in those long rallies but when you can't in turn put balls away, defense can only get you so far, you need to find a way to score and we weren't finding the open spots on the court. We had 3 players with double digits digs but when you look on the offensive side of things, we were not reciprocating that with our offense." The defense most definitely did their part collecting 58 digs over the three sets with Grace Fedie accumulating 15 digs, Laura Forsgren with 14 digs and Ashley White adding 12 digs.

After a tough start to the day the Lady Vikes quickly fell down 2-0 with scores of 25-22 and 25-14. With their backs against the wall, the Lady Vikes battled back winning three straight sets completing their first victory of the season with scores of 25-19, 25-18 and 15-11. Coach Moser had this to say regarding the match against Spokane "The second match of the day versus Spokane started out in a similar fashion in the first 2 sets. We were back on our heels, just playing defense, waiting for them to make mistakes. I told the girls we have to go out there and earn our points. Don't wait for something to happen, we have to make it happen. And the girls did just that. We started putting pressure on them, getting them out of system and we really got our offense going. Our middles stepped up big time with their swings but also putting up a big block at the net. This got the girls fired up, the energy on the court and on the sideline, we had girls pushing each other around in celebration, slapping the floor, it made the game so fun to be a part of." With the defense being the highlight in game one the facilitators led the way in match number two with Emma Lucas dishing out 19 assists and Kathleen Velazquez collecting 15 assists.

After the big win Coach Moser mentioned "The win against Spokane was big for us, not just to get the first win of the season but to win it the way we did. I think that shows who the Vikings really are. To be down 0-2 and come back fighting to the very end and come out on top in 5 shows the grit and heart that these girls have."

Moving forward the Lady Vikes prepare for the Walla Walla Warriors on Wednesday September 13th at home before a weekend crossover tournament. "The focus moving forward this week is not being satisfied. We'll build off that win but Monday is a new week and we have a lot of volleyball coming up. We also leave for the NWAC crossover tournament at Mt. Hood Friday and Saturday. Once again we will be seeing some of the best competition in the entire conference and we need to be ready for some competitive volleyball. There will be a lot of offense focus this week in practice, working on terminating balls and pressure situations. We still found ourselves on the wrong side of some of those close games last week and we need to find a way to be on the winning side moving forward and finishing those close sets!" said Moser.